Caught completely off guard, the instant the box was opened, she was met with the deathly pale face of a dead man, and a pair of lifeless, lifeless eyes.
Xie Zhaozhao felt her bile surge to the extreme, but she endured it without moving or making a sound, and even her expression remained unchanged.
She forced herself to look at the head one last time before slowly closing the box.
Lifting her eyes, she saw the probing look on Ren Jialin's face, followed by his quick averted gaze.
No matter how amazed he was, a person of the martial arts world can be unrestrained, but cannot lose their morals.
"The assassins' instructor!" Ren Jialin said, "The heads of the assassins who tried to kill you and Grand Secretary Gu during the Lantern Festival have been taken away by the imperial court. I'll give you the head of their instructor."
"This is a man's head, around forty-five years old, with a thin face, a broken left eyebrow about a third of the way from the corner of his eye, gray hair, and a two-finger-width wisp of white hair on his forehead..."
Xie Zhaozhao carefully described the heads she saw to Ren Jialin, her voice without even a noticeable inflection.
She was a gentle woman, yet also a woman of great composure and magnanimity. Ren Jialin admired her greatly and clasped his hands in a fist and said, "From now on, I am willing to serve you like a dog or a horse."
"Thank you! Does this instructor have any background?"
"This man was originally Old Ghost, the instructor of the Royal Guard Base. Fifteen years ago, he led more than two hundred top guards from the base to the border to rescue the emperor, but he never returned. In fact, he defected to the Duke of Cheng'en."
Unfortunately, after realizing that the old ghost had betrayed the emperor, the two hundred guards rose up in resistance, and most of them died from poisoning. In the end, only one escaped.
Xie Zhaozhao remained calm and listened attentively to what he had to say.
“Top-notch secret guards are not easy to train, so the assassins who tried to kill you and Grand Secretary Gu on the Lantern Festival were half-finished products trained by Old Ghost.”
Ren Jialin took out a piece of paper, which was a hand-drawn map: Wei's Secret Guard Camp.
It is the base of the Wei family's secret guard camp.
Ren Jialin said that this was the place where Lao Gui trained Wei's secret guards. It was easy to defend and difficult to attack. He didn't have enough manpower to destroy it. He told her to give this address to Grand Secretary Gu so that the court could send people to catch the thief as soon as possible.
Old Ghost bought a mansion in the city to enjoy himself. He doesn't go to the Dark Guard Camp every day, but if he doesn't go for a long time, it will definitely arouse suspicion.
For Xie Zhaozhao, this was truly a great gift.
The heads were just a test of her courage!
Ren Jialin went out first. He didn't want to meet Gu Shaoyu. He was a man of the martial arts world and didn't deal directly with people from the imperial court.
By giving Xie Zhaozhao this roadmap, he was both helping the imperial court and using the court to avenge himself!
Gu Shaoyu waited for Xie Zhaozhao in the carriage outside the teahouse.
Hearing the waiter call him, Gu Shaoyu quickly arrived on the third floor. He lifted the curtain and saw Xie Zhaozhao sitting at the table with a pot of steaming tea in front of her.
Gu Shaoyu looked into her eyes, at the pale face beneath her calm expression, and at the strong defense erected in her raised eyes.
“Zhao Zhao.” His heart clenched instantly.
She chuckled softly: "You're here? Help me up, I can't stand up!"
"Hmm." He quickly came over, trying to help her up, but her limbs were too weak to stand.
He bent down, picked her up, and realized she was trembling.
He immediately felt a murderous glint in his eyes: "What did he do?"
She said a friend asked her to talk to him, and he respected her wishes, gave her space, and suppressed his curiosity to find out which friend it was, so he just waited outside. But he never expected that she would be bullied.
Xie Zhaozhao pointed to the box on the table and said with a pale face, "There's a human head in the box! It's Old Ghost, the head instructor of the Royal Guard base who escaped more than ten years ago."
Gu Shaoyu pursed his lips, his eyes sharp. What kind of lousy friend is this, actually sending a head to scare people?
He immediately picked her up and took her downstairs. Nanxing, disguised as a driver, came up and took the head away.
Back at the inn, Gu Shaoyu took her to soak in the steaming hot bath for a long time, relaxing her body and mind, and then guided her to tell him about the head.
Expressing your fears aloud will ease the tension in your heart and gradually make you stronger and more fearless.
Xie Zhaozhao gave Gu Shaoyu a map of the Wei Clan's secret guard camp, saying that the assassins who carried out the assassination on the Lantern Festival came from there.
That place is more than 300 miles away from the capital. In the deep mountains of the continuous Daqing Mountains, there is a huge valley. Because of its complex and dangerous terrain and the presence of wild beasts, ordinary people rarely venture into it except for hunters.
Gu Shaoyu looked at the map for a while, wrote a letter, and handed it to Nanxing along with the map and the box: "You must immediately send someone to contact the Imperial City Guard. Send it by express courier, six hundred li away, and make sure to deliver it to the Emperor personally."
Seeing that her expression had calmed down, Gu Shaoyu held her hand and praised her, "Zhaozhao, you are very good, even stronger than I imagined."
She was able to face the dead head without losing her composure, entirely thanks to the rule of "remaining calm in the face of danger".
"Zhaozhao, His Majesty and Leng Luo have long suspected that those assassins are from the Wei family, but they have been struggling to find evidence. The Daqingshan Mountains stretch endlessly, with deep and treacherous forests, making it impossible for the court to detect them. Your friend has probably been watching them for a long time as well."
When they were assassinated, His Majesty and Leng Luo placed their "corpses" in the Imperial City Guard in order to lure out the mastermind behind the assassination attempt, capture the perpetrator, and then follow the clues to uncover the truth.
Even following the trail further is far less effective than directly seizing the headquarters address and taking them all down at once.
"If we destroy the Dark Guard Camp this time, the Cheng'en family will be blind and deaf, and there will be no more court officials being killed inexplicably."
Gu Shaoyu held her hand and said with satisfaction, "Zhaozhao, I'm so glad you trust me..."
The fact that she was able to bring herself to the appointment shows that she has taken another big step forward in trusting him.
***
The capital city.
These past few days, rumors have been circulating that the Pingyang Earl's Mansion is going to sell the dowry of Lady Gu's servants.
Buying an ordinary servant is easy, but special servants like government soldiers are usually not something that mansions are willing to sell.
So all the top-notch dentists rushed in, all wanting to do this big business.
Before long, four or five people from the brokerage firm arrived. Each of them exuded a murderous aura, and the leader was a tall man with a thick beard.
They specifically inquired about "whether there were any soldiers or guards who knew some martial arts and were for sale?"
The official broker made contact first, asking them what they intended to do with the people they bought.
“We are from SF Express Escort Agency, and we are in dire need of escorts,” said the bearded man. “We have received several large orders and are in short supply of escorts. If you are skilled in martial arts and loyal, the price is negotiable.”
Once this big order is accepted, it's just a matter of handling it; there's no need to waste food to support those soldiers.
The top-notch broker was overjoyed and thought he should immediately go to the Marquis of Pingyang's residence to discuss the deal.
Before we even set off, another person came knocking on our door.
"I heard someone wants to sell soldiers? How many? I'll take them all!"
The man was dressed in a dark blue robe, his black hair simply tied up. He was smiling and talking, like a handsome young gentleman in a turbid world, with a particularly elegant and refreshing demeanor.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com