Chapter 2
Late autumn of the sixteenth year of the Republic of China.
At noon on the 26th, a heavy rain fell in the northern suburbs. By evening, the rain gradually stopped, and a sliver of light barely broke through the dark sky. The afterglow shone through Wushan Mountain and cast a golden glow onto Yuhu Lake. The clouds dispersed and the sky cleared, giving a sense of sudden enlightenment.
When Yu Congyi looked at the lake, he saw the golden shimmering waves dancing and floating right before his eyes. He smelled the damp scent of grass, trees, and forests after the rain, as if he could touch his nose and feel the wetness.
He didn't do that. Yu Congyi glanced around slightly, then turned and walked across the bridge.
Located in the heart of the South Bay of Yuhu Lake, amidst lush grass, the Lin Mansion is entirely made of white marble, resembling a classical building from the Western Renaissance period. It exudes solemnity and grandeur, with symmetrical sides and tall Roman columns supporting the central dome. Pure white and flawless, it resembles a small palace.
Such a large building is not common in the northern suburbs of Tianjin. The owner of the mansion, Mr. Lin, is none other than Lin Mengze, the chairman of the Beiping Trade Union. Recently, he had just acquired a certain right of the Zhili Province Railway Transportation Organization. Considering that he had built his business from scratch and now had a large and prosperous enterprise, he took this opportunity to hold a banquet to invite all his friends and relatives, both public and private, to celebrate in a grand and lively manner.
Since Lin Mengze was the chairman of the Beiping Trade Union, he must have had many friends. He was a generous and sociable man with countless relatives and friends. His banquets attracted guests from the military and business circles. On the day of the banquet, the place was packed with guests.
Since the Lin family mansion was decorated in such a luxurious and extravagant style, the guests must not be ordinary people. At this moment, Yu Congyi slowly walked towards the tall, pure white building and saw that those standing or walking under the corridor were all neatly dressed and properly attired. He did not recognize many of these distinguished guests, but only a few figures were somewhat familiar to him.
As his gaze searched around again, he quickly followed a young man in a white suit with short, center-parted hair.
This man was his target! Yu Congyi became alert, and his right hand pressed against the pistol tucked into his waistband inside his jacket.
No! We cannot act rashly. Not to mention that the guards at the gate saw him clearly today, dressed in a black wool overcoat, and now that the banquet is about to begin, it is by no means the time to act.
Yu Congyi's gaze was fixed on the white-haired man's movements. After seeing him disappear behind a stone door and leave hand in hand with a young woman, he lingered nonchalantly by the pond in the garden in front of the mansion, his heart as still as water.
The man in white, named Tang Lishu, was the adopted son of the Tang family, a well-known wealthy merchant family along the Haihe River in Tianjin—and that was the purpose of his attendance at the banquet today—to assassinate the target!
"Sergeant Yu!" someone called to him. Yu Congyi turned his gaze from the withered water lily leaves in the pond and looked at the person who had called him.
"Director Zhang," he replied. Seeing the other person standing under the corridor waiting for him, Yu Congyi hesitated for a moment before stepping forward.
“We’ve been waiting for you, little brother,” Director Zhang patted his shoulder affectionately. “The banquet is about to begin, go and sit down.”
Yu Congyi nodded to him, and because he had ulterior motives, he did not refuse and obediently went into the main hall. As he passed Director Zhang, he suddenly saw a white skirt flash across the green lawn at the end of the corridor, where tall Roman columns stood. The fluorescent light on the skirt, like a light butterfly wing, shimmered and disappeared in the afterglow of the sunset.
That was… Yu Congyi hurriedly followed, and sure enough, he saw the figure he had been dreaming of in the courtyard behind the mansion. The woman was wearing a pure white Western-style long dress, her arms wrapped in silk sleeves. The characteristic of Western clothing was that her waist was clearly outlined, and her calves were faintly visible through the hem of the skirt and pure white stockings. After not seeing her for so long, her face was still the lotus flower and clear water in Yu Congyi's mind, unchanged in the slightest over the years. Upon seeing her, Yu Congyi suddenly felt ashamed of himself and couldn't help but stand behind a pillar, secretly glancing at her.
Unaware that she was whispering something to her servant on the lawn, she strolled around on her own after the servant left—behind the lawn was a large, dense grove of sycamore trees, which was the mansion's back garden.
Jiang Jiejie, Jiejie. Yu Congyi was not too willing to show himself. She was his adoptive father's sister, a woman he had secretly loved for many years, a woman who was like an angel descended from heaven. Although he knew that she was already married to someone else, he had never given up his longing for her.
Now, in this state of being so close yet so far, Yu Congyi nervously swallowed and carefully stepped down the stairs. It was time for him to be brave, when suddenly—
It was a very faint "click," as if something had scratched it, or perhaps the sound of a metal trigger being pulled. In any case, by the time Yu Congyi figured out what it was, it was too late. Yu Congyi instinctively hid behind the tall Roman column and watched as a small flower of blood bloomed on Jiang Jiejie's chest, right where her heart was. In the moment of disbelief and sudden realization, Jiang Jiejie didn't even have time to cry out before she lay back on the ground, clutching her chest in pain, letting out weak and desperate sobs. From the depths of the woods, the barely audible sound of clothes rustling against branches could be heard.
Someone had assassinated Jiang Jiejie while hiding in the sycamore grove! Yu Congyi froze in disbelief. His mind went blank, and his heart seemed to skip a beat! Jiejie! He almost screamed out loud, but he didn't. For just a few seconds, Yu Congyi deeply suppressed the rage and despair in his heart, suppressing that cry of grief and indignation. He had come to the Lin mansion with ulterior motives; he couldn't expose himself! Even though it was Jiang Jiejie… Jiejie, Yu Congyi swallowed hard, managing to calm himself down. His eyes were fixed on the white body of the unjustly murdered Jiang Jiejie lying on the ground, then he shifted his gaze to the sycamore grove, where he saw a figure moving.
Yu Congyi did not disturb the servants of the brothel, nor did he make a sound. He left the end of the corridor and Jiang Jiejie's body very quickly, following the murderer who killed Jiang Jiejie.
A dozen minutes later, the woman's white corpse, which Yu Congyi had left to her own devices, was discovered by a servant who happened to be passing by the back garden. A terrified scream, like a bolt from the blue, rang out and echoed throughout the pure white palace.
…
Yu Congyi lost track of the assassin. It wasn't that he was incompetent or useless, but rather that after the assassination, the man circled the woods a few times before heading straight for the back door of the mansion. He then went up to the second floor and headed towards the reception room where the mansion's owner was.
This person must be someone of great importance. Even a military police sergeant like Yu Congyi, with his status, couldn't easily enter the reception room. What kind of VIP must he be? Yu Congyi stood forlornly on the handrail at the corner of the second-floor corridor, gazing towards the reception room. A feeling of suffocation and resentment welled up in his chest, a feeling he couldn't shake off. He was unwilling, unwilling! That surge of grief and indignation in his heart left him unable to decide whether to go in or not. Just as he was suffocating, he came to his senses and heard a steady stream of footsteps downstairs, a faint indication that someone was coming upstairs. Not wanting to attract attention, he could only leave angrily, his mind constantly replaying the image of the assassin.
While he was following the man, he noticed a red embroidered pattern on the cuff. Although the man was dressed in a regular black suit, the detail on the cuff was unusual.
Yu Congyi believed the other party was unaware of his pursuit. He was highly skilled, having climbed the ranks of sergeant major in the Tianjin Military Police Command over ten years; ordinary people were no match for him, and no one knew he was being followed. Yu Congyi walked dejectedly down the stairs, wanting to visit Jiang Jiejie's body in the backyard again, but once more restrained himself.
His mission is not yet complete!
No one knows how many undercurrents might be lurking within this magnificent white "palace" tonight.
…
A man with red floral patterns on his cuffs stood in the reception room. Before him was a delicate curtain made of dark red coral beads, dividing the large room into two spaces, one large and one small. He gently parted the beaded curtain and heard a voice from inside call out, "Come in."
“Madam,” the man said, bowing his head, “Jiang Jiejie has been confirmed dead.”
…
Yu Congyi changed his clothes—for better maneuvering, he placed his old clothes in a guest room cabinet—and then concealed his pistol before slipping into the crowd. The banquet was just beginning, and no one seemed to be affected by the sudden news of Madam Yang's death. It seemed only a few young kitchen boys and maids were alarmed—of course, that was because Jiang Jiejie's husband's status was insignificant at the scene. The Lin mansion's steward, who had been alerted, even warned his servants with disgust upon seeing the body that they must not utter a sound, lest they tarnish the reputation of Master Lin and the banquet!
Yu Congyi also chose to kill Tang Lishu in the backyard garden. Tang Lishu had come out to sober up and urinate, feigning drunkenness. Yu Congyi, with sharp eyes, followed him and shot him in the lung, ending his life. The silenced pistol he carried minimized the noise of the assassination. Tang Lishu's body lay beneath a broad-leaved tree by the flowerbed, resting among the golden fallen leaves. Yu Congyi silently returned to his seat, as if nothing had happened.
Yu Congyi began searching for the man with the dark red floral pattern on his cuffs. He didn't know the man's identity, just as the man didn't know someone was looking for him.
…
Lu Jin twisted his wrists, rolled up his sleeves, and the dark red trumpet vine pattern on his wrists was tucked into his sleeves. He turned on the tap to wash his hands, behind him was an oval-shaped carved bronze mirror. He stood in front of the mirror for a while, his hands still wet, then rolled down his sleeves and reached into his pocket for a cigarette. Just as he pulled one out and was about to light it, the stall door opened, and a man in a black short-sleeved shirt walked in. The man passed Lu Jin sideways and stopped at the sink to relieve himself. Lu Jin stood by the sink and pressed the bronze lighter twice, but found it wouldn't light. After trying many times, he clicked his tongue in disgust, then pushed the door open and left.
On the other side, Yu Congyi finished relieving himself and quickly went to the mirror, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. A casual glance in the mirror earlier had made his eyes widen – that man! The dark red floral pattern on his cuffs; who could have imagined that the person he had been searching for so long would appear here? When Yu Congyi entered, the man hadn't even looked at him directly, showing no concern. Judging from his figure, Yu Congyi confirmed it was the one who had been following him in the bushes. Although that man was an assassin – Yu Congyi had observed him closely earlier and realized he didn't seem like a military person; his clothing was neat, even somewhat elaborate, making him more like a privately hired assassin acting on orders… Yu Congyi followed him out of the room, and seeing the man's figure still lingering at the end of the corridor, he followed him again.
The mansion was definitely not the place to make a move. Yu Congyi's heart sank, and he followed the man upstairs. He saw the man's figure flash past the door of a guest room and disappear in an instant.
Yu Congyi didn't want to miss this opportunity. He silently stepped onto the thin carpet beneath his feet, his steps steady and extremely light as he approached the guest room door—
The door was left ajar, and the guest room owner, not expecting anyone to follow them, was not on guard.
Through the narrow crack in the door, barely an inch wide, Yu Congyi's eagle-like eyes were fixed on the scene inside—two men, one standing and one sitting. The man with red floral patterns on his cuffs was standing sideways, muttering something to someone, while his gaze shifted slightly to the left, where in the center of the living room, in a traditional Chinese mahogany official's hat chair, a man sat with his back to the door.
Although he was only sitting, Yu Congyi could immediately tell that he was an extremely tall man. His silhouette, as seen by Yu Congyi, created an inexplicable sense of incongruity. A black overcoat draped over the chair frame, the man wore a black silk shirt and black velvet trousers, exuding an air of understated elegance.
“Young Master, the Zhan family’s son didn’t come today,” Lu Jin straightened up and raised his voice slightly. The man sitting there seemed to remember something, so he looked up, then turned to the side and stood up, holding onto the back of his chair.
“He didn’t want to come.” The man turned around and picked up his coat from the back of the chair. In that instant, Yu Congyi saw his profile clearly—and couldn’t help but frown slightly.
It was a young man. His shoulder-length, straight, jet-black hair, like his shirt, was pure black with a silk-like texture. In the dim indoor light, his skin was almost grayish-white. His face—it was unmistakably a Western face! His profile was like that of a classical European sculpture, a combination of beauty and fortitude, exquisitely beautiful yet breathtakingly so, yet coldly tinged with a sickly languor.
Seeing the two whispering amongst themselves, it became clear that Jiang Jiejie had died at their hands! The foreigner was the master, and Lu Jin was the servant; it was these two who had conspired to kill Jiejie! Just as Yu Congyi was pondering how to proceed, Lu Jin suddenly glanced towards the door—of course, he saw nothing, but he walked towards the door.
"What's wrong, Lu Jin?" The foreigner spoke fluent Chinese with no accent, and without looking at him, one would think he was a genuine Chinese person speaking.
Lu Jin looked around outside but saw no one. He went back inside and whispered, "It's alright, young master."
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