Chapter 496 Are you interested in cooperation?
The atmosphere was as heavy as if filled with lead. Zheng Qinghe sat on a stool beside the bed, stroking his cuffs repeatedly with his fingers. He wanted to ask about Gu Jiayue's injury several times, but when he saw Jiang Luli's tense profile, he swallowed the words back.
Not until Gu Jiayue's breathing gradually stabilized and her chest rose and fell more evenly did Jiang Luli slowly loosen his clenched fists, his knuckles turning bluish-white.
He stood up, his voice hoarse as if it had been sanded. "Sir Zheng, General Zhang has left a hundred soldiers to guard the courtyard. I have to go out for a while. Tonight... please take care of Jiayue."
Zheng Qinghe looked up, guessing about 70% of the determination in his eyes, and frowned. "I advise you not to act rashly."
Jiang Luli turned his head abruptly, his voice filled with suppressed ruthlessness. "I can't wait any longer."
"If I hadn't arrived at the right time and bumped into General Zhang who had just returned from suppressing the bandits, Jiayue..."
The rest of the words were not spoken, but Zheng Qinghe could imagine what the result would be.
"Don't worry, I know my limits." He turned and strode out the door.
The night was like spilled ink, wrapping the county town tightly.
Jiang Luli followed the subtle marks left by the secret guards on the corners of the walls and tree trunks, and soon found himself outside an inconspicuous courtyard on the outskirts of the city.
The courtyard wall was covered with dead vines, and the paint on the door had mostly peeled off. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, but the atmosphere hidden in the darkness was so strong that it made people nervous.
The secret guard was hiding behind the old locust tree. Seeing him approach, he immediately bowed and reported in a low voice. "Master, we followed the assassins here. For some reason, a lot of people suddenly poured in. I was just about to report to you when you came."
"Yes, I understand."
Jiang Luli stood up. The leader of the secret guards thought he was going to charge in directly, so he tried to dissuade him, saying, "We are outnumbered, and if we force our way in, we're probably going to get nothing. Why don't we wait a little longer? The Yunzhou government should be here soon."
He is the prince of Dagan, his father is the only prince, and Yunzhou Prefecture is his fiefdom. It is just a matter of a word to transfer some people.
This is also the reason why he did not make a desperate attempt to deal with these people before. After all, he wanted to play it safe.
But what happened to him tonight made him feel that he shouldn't wait any longer.
If I waste any more time, who knows what these people will do. I can't wait any longer.
"Don't worry, I won't be impulsive." He lowered his voice very low, his eyes fixed on the shadow in the corner of the yard like a hawk, "We have to find out what's hiding in there."
As soon as he finished speaking, the secret guard suddenly touched his arm and pointed towards the corner door. "Master, someone is coming in."
Jiang Luli looked up and saw a man in black clothes and a conical hat slipping in from the corner door, his figure as nimble as a night cat.
That back figure... looked familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere.
He subconsciously took two steps forward, trying to see the face under the hat clearly, but just when he walked half a meter away, the man in black suddenly turned around!
A cold light broke through the air!
Jiang Luli almost instinctively turned sideways, the dart brushed past his cheek and hit the tree trunk behind him with a "thud", its tail feathers still vibrating.
The secret guard tensed up instantly, his hand on the hilt of the knife, not daring to breathe.
He was ready to attack, and as soon as the man in black gave a warning to the people in the yard, he would do everything he could to protect his master's safety.
But the man in black did not shout. He even turned around and walked towards the wasteland outside the yard, his steps neither fast nor slow, as if he was leading the way.
Jiang Luli narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and followed.
"Master!" The secret guard quickly grabbed him, his voice filled with anxiety, "It might be a trap! Be careful!"
"Don't worry." Jiang Luli broke free from his hand and touched the three thunder bombs in his arms with his fingertips. He was not completely without defense or backup.
That was Ye Yuntang's newly made thunder bomb. It was incredibly powerful, one could blow up an entire courtyard. He hadn't used it before, fearing it might injure his own people. But now? In this den of villains, he was fearless.
"Just follow me from a distance. If there's any danger, I can save myself. Don't worry about me."
The secret guards had no choice but to disperse and hide behind trees and in haystacks, following from a distance.
The man in black stopped under a crooked tree a kilometer away from the yard, leaning his back against the rough trunk, holding a sword in his arms, his hat pulled down low so that his face could not be seen clearly, but his posture clearly showed that he was waiting for someone.
Jiang Luli stood still ten meters away. Without saying anything extra, he tapped the ground with his toes and rushed over like an arrow. His soft sword was unsheathed and pierced the opponent's heart!
The man in black obviously didn't expect that he would start fighting as soon as he said so, but he reacted very quickly. He dodged sideways and pulled out the long sword from his arms, and blocked the soft sword with a "clang".
The two swords collided, and sparks splashed on the dry grass.
But in just a few breaths, the two had exchanged seven or eight moves, and the wind from their swords made the fallen leaves on the ground swirl and fly.
Finally, Jiang Luli feinted, using the opponent's force to block and retreating three steps, then stood firmly, with the tip of his sword pointed at the ground. "You are not Xie Qingyun."
The man in black chuckled, raised his hand and took off his hat, revealing a face that looked exactly like Xie Qingyun.
"I look like this." He raised an eyebrow, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "Why do you say I'm not?"
Jiang Luli stared at his face, his eyes becoming even darker.
During the fight just now, he deliberately tore the opponent's collar just to confirm one thing.
Xie Qingyun was injured in his left clavicle when he was in Yanshan. In order not to worry his family, he never mentioned it to outsiders. Although the injury healed later, a centipede-like scar was left hidden under his collar.
But the owner of this face in front of me has a smooth collarbone.
"Xie Qingyun has a scar on his left clavicle." Jiang Luli's voice was as cold as ice.
The man in black followed his gaze to his collarbone. "Is he injured...here?"
Jiang Luli didn't answer, but the silence said it all.
The man in black shrugged nonchalantly and slowly fixed his tangled collar, his movements a bit nonchalant. "I see. No wonder you stripped me right away."
"Who are you?" Jiang Luli didn't retract his sword. "Why are you targeting Gu Jiayue? What is your relationship with the Xie family?"
The man in black leaned back against the tree, one hand toying with the hilt of his sword, the other resting casually on his knee. He looked nonchalant, not like he had just been in a fight. "Do you know how many sons Lord Xie has?"
If you ask someone else this question, I'm afraid they won't be able to answer it.
After all, most of the powerful people in Beijing have three wives and four concubines and many children.
But Lord Xie is an exception. He has only one wife in his backyard. After 30 years of marriage, they have only one son and two daughters. He is a rare infatuated man in Beijing.
"The world only knows that the Marquis's family has a legitimate son, Xie Qingyun," the man in black suddenly laughed, a hint of coldness in his voice. "But they didn't know that the Marquis' wife gave birth to twins."
He paused. "It's just that the other twin was born with a fortune teller who said it was unlucky. He said that if he survived, the entire mansion would be dragged into hell. Those people were afraid of death, so they threw that innocent child into a mass grave, leaving him to fend for himself."
"He was lucky enough to be picked up by a passing peddler. The peddler raised him until he was three, but then he fell ill and died. He became a true orphan, wandering the streets, eating at every home and getting beaten by every family. Later, he met a Taoist priest who took him in, but he taught him to be a tool for killing."
"Later, that Taoist priest became the Imperial Master. He took the precious legitimate son of the Marquis's mansion as his apprentice. One was in the open, enjoying a glorious and bright life; the other was in the dark, shedding blood and staining his life."
The man in black lowered his head and looked at his hands.
The hands had distinct joints but were covered with thin calluses.
"That disciple of the Imperial Master probably never knew until his death that he had a shadow, shielding him from the sword in the dark and handling the dirty work he disdained to get involved in."
Jiang Luli already understood everything. "You are Xie Qingyun's twin brother."
This was news he had never known. Lord Xie, who had made no achievements in the court and could only rely on the title bestowed by his ancestors to enjoy his life, was not a simple person.
"Isn't it obvious?" The man in black spread his hands, his tone calm, as if he was talking about someone else.
This way, everything connected.
The one who wanted to kill Gu Jiayue was not Xie Qingyun, but the Imperial Master.
But he couldn't understand why Gu Jiayue had never returned since she left Kyoto. How could a girl who devoted herself to teaching in the southwest be in the way of the imperial teacher?
They sent people to kill him again and again, and their attitude of not stopping until he was dead made people think that these two people had some deep hatred.
"Why did the Imperial Master insist on killing Miss Gu?"
"I heard," the man in black drawled, as if telling a joke, "that she's some kind of world-destroying demon star. As long as she's still alive, Da Gan will eventually die at her hands. That's why the Imperial Master is so anxious to eradicate her completely."
Jiang Luli sneered, his eyes full of disdain.
He knew better than anyone else who Gu Jiayue was.
A man who would stay up late to correct papers for the children in the school, who would argue with the gentry to allow peasant girls to go to school, who would use his own money to take in thousands of orphans...
How could such a person be a demon star that destroys a country?
Excluding this ridiculous reason, there is only one possibility left.
The Imperial Master is lying.
He wanted to kill Gu Jiayue to achieve some shameful purpose.
"Why are you telling me this?" Jiang Luli stared at him. "Just now outside the yard, you could have called for help to catch us all in one fell swoop."
The man in black raised his head, his gaze suddenly brightening beneath his bamboo hat as he glared directly at Jiang Luli. "No one wants to be a swordsman for life."
He stood up straight, sheathing his sword with a soft click. "Are you interested in collaborating?"
"I have another piece of news for you," he suddenly leaned closer, his voice lowered to a whisper, "If you don't return to the capital soon, you may not be able to see the old emperor for the last time."
"The Imperial Master added a lot of goodies to the elixir the old emperor made." He licked his lips, as if recalling some unpleasant memory, his expression becoming a little more stern. "The old emperor has been eating it every day for the past few days. Now, even a god wouldn't be able to save him. At most, he'll live three or five days longer, or three or five days less."
After saying that, he stared at Jiang Luli's face, trying to find some surprise or eagerness in that calmness, but the deep pool in Jiang Luli's eyes remained calm.
The man in black tutted, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "You clever people are so boring. You scheme and scheme, but in the end, you always end up scheming against yourselves."
"But," he suddenly laughed, a little coldly, "if that old man really falls, I'd be happy to see it happen."
He took a half step back, leaned back against the tree, and raised his chin. "Well? What do you think of my proposal? Cooperate with me, and I can give you some...unexpected help."
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