Wang Su had been an imperial graduate of the highest degree since the tenth year of Shengkang. Since entering the court, he had mingled extensively with civil officials and refined scholars, honing a sharp and persuasive tongue. Yet, he never expected that he wouldn’t be able to talk down even his own cousin, a man from a military background. For a moment, he felt utterly helpless.
Exchanging a look with his wife, he saw that she was equally at a loss. Finally, she simply laid down an ultimatum, speaking bluntly.
“How about this? If you can resolve all the concerns we have before Mother’s birthday next month, and if A-Nian herself agrees, we will naturally be happy to facilitate this marriage. But if you fail, you must stop being so stubborn. Go back to Han Prefecture and let this matter rest. Deal?”
It was a delaying tactic. Her elder brother, Wang Su, used it quite handily.
A faint, knowing smile tugged at the corner of Pei Zisu’s mouth. His cousin was a bit too green to be using military strategy against him. He nodded and replied, “Fine. But during this period, if I want to see my cousin A-Nian, you two are not to obstruct me.”
After some back and forth, the couple realized they hadn’t gained the upper hand at all. The cousin-in-law, Lady Xiang, sighed softly and could only temporarily agree. She figured that A-Nian wouldn’t be staying at the Marquis’s manor for long anyway; once she returned to the Jiang family, it wouldn’t be so easy for the two of them to meet.
Pei Zisu, however, looked so full of confidence that she didn’t know how to continue advising him.
Once the couple left the room, Pei Zisu’s expression turned significantly more solemn. But it lasted only a moment before he regained his composure. He glanced at the sky outside; the dark of night was fast approaching.
In the eastern district of Xijing City, inside an ordinary civilian residence.
A man lay on the ground, hacked so badly he was a bloody mess. With only his last breath remaining, he glared up at the man standing over him with eyes full of rage and questioned, “Who exactly are you? Why are you killing me?”
“How can Prince Yi have such a stupid creature under his command? You’ve been hunted right to your nest, and you’re still asking questions? You truly don’t know the meaning of death.”
The man was shocked. He had no idea where he had slipped up. He had been hidden in Xijing for years, and even the imperial spies had never uncovered his true identity. How could the man before him reveal it so casually?
Seeing his astonishment, Pei Zisu’s disdain was palpable.
With a flick of his wrist, his blade fell, and another hole appeared in the questioning man’s body. He screamed in agony, but because of his secret status, he was forced to suppress his cries.
Pei Zisu looked down at him, his eyes filled with a murderous chill. “I will only ask once. That batch of iron ingots produced by the Luzhou Prefectural Office—where did you hide them?”
Iron ingots again!
Someone had already come to ask him about them indirectly once before. Since then, he felt he needed to be more cautious. Before the goods were fully moved out, he thought it best to shift their location every now and then. He hadn’t expected that in less than half a month, someone would break in and demand their whereabouts by force.
Eyes wide and defiant, the man shouted, “Just kill me! You want to know where the iron ingots are? In your dreams!”
“You certainly have a stiff lip. I wonder if that beautiful mistress of yours and your three-year-old child hidden in Qintai Alley are worth you keeping your mouth shut.”
With those words, he tossed a silver lock engraved with “Long Life and Prosperity” in front of the man. It carried a faint scent—a scent the man knew all too well. His resolve vanished instantly.
“What are you going to do?! Every debt has its debtor! They know nothing! Why involve them?”
The man on the ground had been half-dead, but upon hearing Pei Zisu’s words, his eyes burned with enough fury to incinerate the man before him. “To strike at a woman and a child—you have no shame!”
“You lot hid the iron ingots, causing the Directorate of Waterways to repeatedly delay the levee repairs. When the Huai River rises and drowns the villages downstream, more than just one woman and child will die. You dare say I have no shame? You’re not fit to speak the words.”
As the words fell, Pei Zisu’s blade moved, cleanly severing two of the man’s fingers. As the severed digits flew across the floor, twitching slightly, sweat poured off the man’s forehead like beads.
His terror reached its peak.
“A person only has ten fingers. Even if they are all cut off, if treated in time, you won’t die. But if fingers are repeatedly severed and then healed, I doubt many could endure it. Should I start with the mistress or the child?”
The short blade grazed the man’s cheek, and thin lines of blood immediately welled up. Just as the tip of the blade was about to plunge into the man’s left eye, Pei Zisu wore a bloodthirsty expression, the darkness in his eyes laid bare.
“I… I’ll talk. I’ll talk…”
“Spineless wretch!”
Pei Zisu’s mockery made the man flush with shame, but for the safety of his family and his own life, he blurted out an address. It wasn’t far—about three streets away.
“I’ve given you the address. Can you let us go now?” the man pleaded. His earlier bravado was a mere flash in the pan; faced with the extermination of his family, he buckled.
Pei Zisu’s hand moved, and a new wound appeared across the man’s throat.
The man struggled desperately, trying to stem the flow of blood from the wound, but it only surged faster. His eyes held nothing but rage and despair. Pei Zisu glanced at him with utter contempt.
“A creature that betrays its master for its own skin… I have killed countless like you. Prince Yi is blind; I don’t mind cleaning house for him.”
He watched as the man went from violent struggling to gradual weakness, until finally, his eyes glazed over and his breath stopped. Only then did Pei Zisu slip away into the night.
He left as silently as he had arrived.
On the streets, the old watchman was still making his rounds, and several patrols of guards could be seen occasionally. Beneath the eaves of the houses, a figure as agile as a cat flickered past, leaving not a single trace of a shadow.
By the time Pei Zisu slipped into the house the man had identified before his death, the moonlight was still thick, hanging high in the night sky, yet unable to illuminate the path ahead. He took a fire-starter from his robe and struck it; in the dim glow, he saw the contents of the room.
Counting carefully, there were eighty-nine chests in total—the exact number of iron ingot crates reported by the Luzhou Prefectural Office to Han Prefecture.
He flipped open one of the chests to inspect it. The iron ingots were stacked neatly inside. The tension in his chest eased slightly.
On this trip, celebrating his aunt’s birthday was one objective; finding these iron ingots was the second.
He brought the fire-starter closer and picked up one of the ingots to weigh it. His face, which had just relaxed, suddenly turned grim.
He picked up several more in succession; they were all the same weight.
Pei Zisu suddenly slammed a fist into the ingot. The “iron” cracked instantly and then shattered into pieces.
The iron ingots meant for the levee repairs were actually hollow!
The Luzhou Prefectural Office—this was nothing short of cold-blooded murder!