Chapter 1
A Rainy Night, Bleak and Chilly Wind,
Awns of Frigid Silver Sword Light
Rain, night rain, bitter rain.
Wind whistling and wailing, rain pittering and pattering, a spring chill in the air.
Cold rain filled the broad river, the air steamy and mizzling, the river hazy and blurry, the silhouettes of trees on both sides of the river hazy and indistinct.
Wind blew on the treetops, rain battered the treetops, blew the leaves, battered the leaves.
The leaves were soaked with water, water soaked the leaves, dripping and dropping. The rim of a bamboo rainhat dripped beads of water.
Not only was the person wearing a bamboo rainhat but also a straw raincloak. The rainhat dripped beads of water, the raincloak also dripped beads of water.
From beginning to end the beads of water dripped on the same spot, and from beginning to end the person stood under a tree, under a willow to the right of the bridge.
The bridge stretched across the river, long and broad, wide enough to fit a large two-horse carriage or for six people to walk side by side. Though it was a wooden bridge, it looked very sturdy.
The bridge here connected to a road, and the end over there naturally also connected to a road.
At the end of the road over there was a town, lanternlight dimly flickering.
The lanternlight was hazy in the rain, and the person’s view was also hazy in the rain.
His gaze shot out from under the rainhat toward the town, cold, stern, and also sharp. From time to time his eyes blinked, but his gaze never changed in the slightest. His face was covered with a black cloth mask, so the change in his expression could not be seen, but he was clearly waiting for something.
On a rainy night, by the river, under a tree, waits a masked man… Such a surreptitious atmosphere!
The rain was stirring, the wind was stirring, the river water was stirring, the tree leaves were stirring… The person was not stirring, made not a sound.
In the distance by the town, a sporadic lanternlight.
The night watchman’s drum was sporadic, carried on the wind, the monotonous tone indicating it was the second watch.
“Second watch…” The person finally spoke, voice pained and downcast, wavering in the wind and rain, then carried off by the blowing wind, washed out by the rain.
The lanternlight also wavered in the wind and rain but didn’t just vanish. It was a moving lanternlight.
The lanternlight emerged from the entrance of the town and gradually moved closer.
The masked man spotted the lanternlight, and his gaze appeared even sharper. But still didn’t move, just quietly waited.
The lanternlight came closer and closer, though slow, and in the end arrived at the bridge. It was a lantern covered with waxed paper, no wonder it could withstand the wind and rain.
The lantern was solitary, but there were two people.
The one holding the lantern walked on the left, slightly behind, and wore dark blue tightfit clothes, a three-span sabre hanging from his waist, a bamboo rainhat on his head.
The one on the right walking slightly ahead held an umbrella in his right hand, wore richly figured clothes and a sword.
The rays of pale yellow lanternlight were not very bright, and correspondingly, the people’s appearance was also dim and hard to discern.
The finely dressed person was around thirty with upward slanting phoenix eyes, a beard, cutting a mighty, powerful figure, and he carried himself well.
The blue-clad man was also around thirty. He looked quite doughty, though he liked the mighty appearance, and the bearing. With the lantern in tow, he was without a doubt leading the way for the finely dressed man.
It looked like he was surely just an attendant.
They reached the bridge and he instinctively raised the lantern a bit.
The lanternlight twinkled as he did so. On the other side under the three, the masked man’s gaze also twinkled. He suddenly moved and walked out from under the shade of the tree.
He didn’t walk fast but also not slow. By the time the two of them reached the end of the bridge he was there also. Thereupon he stopped.
The finely dressed man across from him stopped at almost the same time.
The blue-clad man still took two more steps before he noticed and then stopped in surprise and stared down the masked man. But the masked man paid no attention, just looked at the finely dressed man.
The finely dressed man also just looked at the masked man, his gaze very sharp, the masked man’s gaze even sharper, just like a sword, a sharp sword! The continuous drizzle seemed to be cut by his swordlike gaze!
The finely dressed man couldn’t help but feel a chill, but his gaze did not avert. Quite the opposite, it became even sharper, also like a sword!
The blue-clad man didn’t look away either, he never came in contact with the masked man’s gaze. He stared for a little while, then suddenly looked at the finely dressed man.
The finely dressed man seemed to have forgotten he was there and ignored him and didn’t make a sound.
If the master was not going to say anything, then he ought to say something! He had a thought, then looked at the masked man and bellowed, “Who’s this!”
The masked man didn’t look at him but said softly, “move aside!”
“Move aside,” the blue-clad man raged, “you’re blocking the road and still say to move aside? Do you know who it is you are blocking?”
“I know!”
The blue-clad man stuck out his chest “Then do you know who I am?”
The masked man hmphed coldly, “Who you are doesn’t matter.”
The blue-clad man’s chest stuck out further. “I…”
The masked man cut him off, “I said move aside, for the second time.”
The finely dressed man to the said suddenly said, “Move aside!”
The blue-clad man suddenly turned to him. “Master, why do what he says, this no good thing, furtively blocking the road in the middle of the night, and here you are with good intentions, let me teach him a lesson so he’ll know in the future to be careful who he’s messing with!”
The corners of the finely dressed man’s mouth arched in a slight grin, but he said nothing.
The blue-clad man turned back and glared at the masked man. “I say, friend, if you know what’s good for you you’ll clear out of here in a hurry, or else don’t just look at me as a little bodyguard, it’s enough for you!”
The masked man didn’t even say a word.
The blue-clad man was getting more and more full of himself and he set the lantern down on the bridge railing, then his free right hand suddenly lowered and gripped the handle of the sabre at his waist and he said loud and clear, “Now, what are you…”
The masked man cut him off, “For the third time, move aside!”
“And if I don’t, then what?” The blue-clad man gripped the sabre tighter.
“Die!” The masked man replied, curt and cold.
The blue-clad man laughed wildly, moved his wrist, drew his sabre! It schwinged out of the scabbard and before his laughter had faded he was charging forward!
The masked man seemed not to notice, still not even looking at him.
It was just a short distance between them, and in a split second he closed in, thundering sabre chopping down toward the masked man’s right shoulder!
The sabre was swift, just as it was about to cut off the masked man’s right shoulder, at lightning speed the masked man leaned to the side, his right hand shooting out from under his raincloak and a silver awn of light flashed toward the flashing sabre!
The blue-clad man’s three-span sabre was flung violently out of his hand with a tching!
At about the same time another silver awn of light flashed! And the blue-clad man’s bamboo rainhat was sent flying.
The sabre flew through the air, then suddenly banked and fell, the blade lodging into one of the bridge planks with a thud and quivering back and forth.
The bamboo raincloak fell and plunked down other there, a cut split right down the middle nearly cutting the hat in two.
The thud and the plunk, then a splish-splash as a string of blood splattered out.
The blood sprayed out from between the eyes of the blue-clad man. He cried savagely and grasped and clutched at it with his hands, staggering a few steps to the side before his feet touched air and he fell.
A splash under the bridge and a violent spray of water.
Some crows perched nearby became agitated, flapping their wings and cawing, then flap-flapping away.
Hair-raising caws sounded without end, reverberating through the sky. In the night it sounded more and more horrible.
The finely dressed man’s face finally changed, but he was still calm, right hand holding the umbrella as before, left hand still hanging down as before.
The masked man looked as if nothing had happened at all, at some point returning to his original posture, that killer right hand already returned with the silver awn of light back underneath his raincloak.
The cawing finally died out and the crows had disappeared who knows where.
Wind soughed, rain drizzled, flowing water babbled, just as it had before. Next to the railing the pale yellow lanternlight shone as before.
The finely dressed man suddenly exclaimed, “Excellent swordplay!”
“You flatter me,” the masked man’s mouth responded, but his eyes betrayed not a trace of complacence.
The finely dressed man’s gaze slowly slanted to the running water under the bridge and he snorted in contempt. “I don’t like people playing the hero in front of me.”
“I don’t either,” the masked man said flatly.
The finely dressed man’s gaze turned back sharply and in the blink of an eye he was looking hard at the masked man. “I really don’t like people killing my attendants in front of me.”
“Of course, no one would like that sort of thing.”
“You say you know who I am?”
“’Finely Dressed Marquis’ Xiang Zulou.”
The finely dressed man suddenly laughed. “You really do know who I am. Pity you’re too ashamed to show yourself, I would really like to see if I recognize you or not.”
The masked man was indifferent, shook his head. “You wouldn’t recognize me, but you should at least have heard of me.”
Finely Dressed Marquis Xiang Zulou laughed even louder. “Who are you?”
The masked man didn’t answer. He shrugged his shoulders and tossed off his raincloak, revealing black nightwalker clothes underneath and both his hands.”
His nightwalking clothes were buttoned tight, fit tight, and his hands hung down, his left hand holding his sword scabbard, a silver sword scabbard, and the drawn sword was clutched tightly in his right hand.
The sword’s handle, guard, even the blade itself, nowhere was it not silver, the tip of the blade still dripping blood.
The reflection of lanternlight off the sword was even more dazzling. Xiang Zulou’s gaze seemed to be seized by the sword light as he stared at it in a daze. Suddenly he cried out, “Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu!”
The masked man snorted. “As I expected, you have heard of me.”
Xiang Zulou gave a hollow laugh. “I’ve long heard of you, but I never imagined I’d meet you tonight. This is some coincidence!”
“It’s no coincidence. The night before last…”
“The night before last I took a stroll at night…”
“You had two sworn brothers accompanying you on either side, ‘Miracle Hands’ Yu Qian and ‘Thunder Whip’ Cui Qun, so I could only watch you go out and watch you return home! Last night…” Sun Yu sighed with what sounded like regret. “You were at home playing a card game and there were many people there, so I had to give it up.”
“You’re not willing to try it if you’re not confident of success?”
“That’s right.”
“How cautious, no wonder I’ve never heard of you losing.”
“I can’t but be cautious.”
“Then tonight…”
“Your second uncle threw a banquet and you had to go, but Yu Qian and Cui Qun had a few words with your second uncle and certainly wouldn’t come, and the place was close, so they relaxed, no need to accompany you nearby, and because the place was so close you wouldn’t stay overnight, and when you went home you would have to cross this bridge.”
“So you waited here for me?”
“No better place than here!”
Xiang Zulou nodded repeatedly. Suddenly he burst out laughing. “Looks like you and I really hit it off, here we are talking!”
“Hit it off? Not likely, but in any case, we did talk a bit more than is usual.” Sun Yu suddenly laughed as well. “I got wind that you are just and help the needy and never let down your friends. It’s just a shame I’m not regarded a person, or else I might have befriended you.”
“Who says you aren’t regarded as a person?”
“I do!”
Xiang Zulou was taken aback. “Then you are…”
“An inhumane professional killer!”
Xiang Zulou said, “Are you warning me?”
“You could say that.”
“You definitely have to kill me tonight?”
“I promised someone that before the third watch I would take your life.”
“When you promise someone…”
“I never go back on it!”
“So then tonight it’s either you die or I perish?” Xiang Zulou said.
“No other choice!”
“Alright!” Xiang Zulou’s smile gradually disappeared. “Rumor has it in the jianghu that you are a killer among killers, over a hundred have died under your three-span silver sword…”
“Not that many!”
“You kill people from all walks of life, but your motive is always nothing more than money.”
“Sometimes there are exceptions.” Sun Yu’s eyes shifted slightly.
The blue-clad man’s blood was still on the bridge planks, only the rain had diluted it, spread it out more.
Xiang Zulou’s gaze followed his eyes and spotted the blood. How could he not know what Sun Yu was getting at. He nodded. “Of course you won’t allow someone to interfere with your business, but in the end that was not your original intention. As for me, I trust I am not an exception!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Then,” Xiang Zulou had not a trace of a smile on his face now, “who paid you to kill me?”
“Sorry, I can’t say,” Sun Yu said decisively.
“There’s no way you don’t know…”
“I know, but I can’t say. Keeping secrets is the most basic condition to being a professional killer, besides,” Sun Yu laughed again, “tonight if I’m the one who dies, you will be careful going forward, and good luck finding someone else who could kill you, and of course you will have enough time to find out who the real culprit is. On the other hand, if you are the one who dies tonight, then even if you know who it was, would good is it?”
“Makes sense. Alright, I won’t ask anymore.” Xiang Zulou muttered to himself for a moment, then slowly said, “Strange, I suddenly had a funny thought.”
“What’s that?”
“You kill people always for money. If I gave you money, could you kill someone for me?”
“There’s someone behind me who takes care of arrangements so I don’t have to worry about that. I never mess with that stuff!”
“You might as well think it over carefully. I will pay 2,000 taels of gold!”
“2,000 taels of gold!” Sun Yu’s eyes suddenly gleamed.
“What? Too little?”
“No, too much!” Sun Yu sounded hurried. “Killing you only cost 50 taels!”
“50 taels? Well that’s not what I expected. Years ago I bought a green parrot that could recite Tang poetry, and you know how much I paid for it all together?”
“How much?”
“Exactly 100 taels of gold!” Xiang Zulou gave a wry smile. “Turns out I’m no better than a green parrot!”
Sun Yu said nothing, and the gleam in his eyes remained.
Xiang Zulou knew what the look in Sun Yu’s eyes meant. “As for money, I’ll give you instructions on how to get it. No one’s ever doubted my word, you shouldn’t either. The problem is…”
He didn’t say anything else, but even though he stopped talking, Sun Yu knew what he wanted to say.
Sun Yu also had nothing to say.
2,000 taels of gold was no doubt an alluring sum. He would certainly have to consider it.
The rain gradually weakened and turned misty. The wind was still strong, and the lantern on the bridge was still shining.
Sun Yu finally spoke. “Who is it you want killed?”
Xiang Zulou heaved a deep sigh and answered at a measured pace, “The person who paid for you to kill me!”
Sun Yu laughed. “That’s what I figured.”
“If it’s more than one person, kill however many it is for me.”
“I can do that, and the money?”
“A businessman friend of mine earlier was short of funds and got 2,000 taels of gold from me. This afternoon he paid me back. I ought to have left it at home, but I forgot…” Xiang Zulou raised his left hand and reached into his robe and pulled two silver drafts. “As you can see, these are two silver drafts, each worth a thousand, 2,000 taels in total. The money was on me this whole time. You could have killed me first and then searched my body and got them with no effort, but you didn’t think of that!”
“when I heard you say 2,000 taels of gold I was utterly captivated, how would I think of anything else?”
Xiang Zulou put the silver drafts back in his robe. “You don’t regret it?”
“I never regret anything!”
“Then I’m relieved.”
“Besides, you’re the one who ought to regret it.”
“How’s that?”
“Add 2,000 more taels of gold and what do you think I would do?”
Xiang Zulou smiled thinly. “We’ll just have to see how skilled you really are!”
“I won’t disappoint you.”
“People say knowing someone by name is not as good as meeting them in person. I’ve heard of you for a long time and now I’ve met you, and I too think you won’t disappoint me.”
“Rest assured!”
“To tell the truth, I think it’s a contradiction to say I don’t think you’ll disappoint me, I’m sure you know what I mean.”
“Throughout the ages no one has been able to escape death, I understand.” Sun Yu’s gaze became colder. “Anything else you’d like to say?”
“Yes! I’d like to know just how much you know about me.”
“You’re fond of women, fond of gambling, fond of drink!”
“Everyone knows that!”
“You like the scent of sandalwood.”
“You’ve observed me carefully, sure enough. What else?”
“That’s it. Is that not enough?”
“Not enough! At the very least there’s one more thing you ought to know.”
“Please tell me.”
“Do you know what weapon I use?”
Sun Yu’s gaze happened to fall to Xu Zulou’s side. “A sword!”
Xiang Zulou’s left hand happened to be stroking the sword hanging from his waist. He smiled, a mysterious smile. “Wrong. Not a sword, an umbrella!”
An umbrella?” Sun Yu was taken aback.
Xiang Zulou’s right hand that was holding the umbrella shook and the open umbrella closed up, the accumulated water on it coming together and streaming off, splattering his fine clothes.
The reflected light off the umbrella’s surface glistened a queer metal grey.
“It’s an iron umbrella!” Sun Yu finally saw it.
“That’s right, an iron umbrella, the weapon secretly passed down to me by my master, but you know that with a person of my status, I can’t always have my umbrella with me. When I come and go in and out of rich estates, I only wear a sword and use the umbrella moves with my sword!”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter if you have a sword or not, it’s just that wearing one makes you look more cultured.”
“Yes, a person of my stature really has no need to fight himself ordinarily, but there are always times one finds oneself alone…”
“And when you’re alone you always carry your umbrella.”
“You really are smart, you guessed right again.”
“In the end you really are not an uncareful person.”
Xiang Zulou smiled, a proud smile. “Do I look like it?”
“No!” Sun Yu’s gaze slowly moved away from the iron umbrella. “Looks like your iron umbrella is more unconventional than the regular unconventional weapons like a folding fan or the nine palace wheel. I’ve never fought anyone who used an iron umbrella before.”
“Then you must experience it!”
“But don’t get too full of yourself, skills are acquired through training. I can’t say for sure that you haven’t trained in a while, but I bet it hasn’t been a lot, and when it comes to experience and adapting to situations, I fear you’re a far cry from me. Don’t forget I’m a professional killer who wields a sword for a living!”
Xiang Zulou seemed to be smiling, but it looked a bit forced. “And don’t you forget that those two silver drafts can’t be used if they’re stained with blood. Even if your sword is more ruthless, you still have to be a bit careful.”
“I haven’t forgotten that you put the silver drafts back in your robe, but you have to remember as well that my sword need not pierce your chest in order to take your life.” Sun Yu’s eyes were even colder. “Have anything else to say?”
Xiang Zulou’s smile was gone. “I have nothing left to say.”
“I too have nothing left to say.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” As soon as he spoke, Xiang Zulou opened up into a horse stance. His left hand still didn’t move, but his right hand raised high, fingers pointing at the sky, the umbrella also pointing at the sky.
Sun Yu’s stance also opened up, his left hand not moving, the sword gripped in his right hand slowly rising, hand level and pointing to the right, sword also level and pointing to the right.
The two of them seemed to have turned to wax, not moving at all.
Their gaze didn’t move either, looking into each other’s eyes, their pupils brimming with a murderous aura.
Xiang Zulou’s stance was ordinary, and Sun Yu’s was too.
Though ordinary, they were also invulnerable.
They had no idea how good the other’s martial arts was. Whoever moved first would have a hard time handling the stored up power of the other’s unexpected counterattack.
Sun Yu never did anything he wasn’t confident of succeeding at.
Xiang Zulou had no need to take a risk.
The two of them could only wait.
To find someone’s weakness, the simplest and most effective way was to calmly observe and wait for a change.
The misty rain was so hazy. The wind was strong, urgent, misty rain dancing in the wind, reflecting the pale yellow lanternlight. It no longer looked like rain but fog.
The fog that was not quite fog sealed off the lanternlight, but it could not seal off their eyes.
Their gazes became more and more relentless, crossing and cutting and cutting again! The misty rain became more and more dreary and hazy, as if it had been cut into a thousand, ten thousand threads.
In the distance a drumbeat sounded. The second watch was not yet over. The drumbeats fell and gradually died out.
Sun Yu and Xiang Zulou’s feet finally began to move!
Suddenly it looked like there was no before and after, they both seemed to move at once, but in fact Xiang Zulou was the first to move. He couldn’t wait any longer.
Sun Yu also couldn’t wait.
The two of them stepped slowly, but after two steps they sped up.
Steps speeding up and speeding up, swiftly!
Underfoot were wooden planks, yet their steps made no sound.
Sun Yu’s sword scabbard suddenly left his hand and fell to the wooden planks with a clang.
The sound in the night seemed sufficient to shake Xiang Zulou’s heartstrings. Though he didn’t look down at the wooden planks, he was already distracted, and his invulnerable stance unexpectedly revealed a hole!
When a person’s martial arts is not up to snuff it is hard to perceive it, but of course Sun Yu was not at all ordinary!
Moreover, he intentionally threw down his scabbard to make that noise.
He was not at all sure that Xiang Zulou had been distracted by it, he just knew everyone can be curious, and he hoped that Xiang Zulou was no exception, and then he would have a chance.
Even if it was just a slight chance, he had to try it.
A slight chance after all is still a chance.
It was absolutely not a matter of luck that he was able to become a killer among professional killers, that he was able to survive till now. Skill was secondary, most important was that he understood how to create an opportunity and how to grasp that opportunity.
A person who had an opportunity but didn’t know how to grasp it was an idiot, but the most feebleminded was one who waited for an opportunity. There was no need to wait for an opportunity, a smart person’s eyes were filled with opportunities!
No opportunities? Then just make your own.
In manufacturing your own you still had to grab hold of it tightly, like Sun Yu.
He would never let go of even the smallest opportunity.
His level silver sword pointed to the right now shifted to straight ahead, and his left hand shot up and grasped the hilt of the sword, both hands now holding the sword, stabbing swiftly!
The sword exactly, precisely at that hole!
Both hands wielded the sword, and the sword came on with astonishing force.
Before the sword arrived, the sword qi already pressed close. Xiang Zulou, suffused from head to toe in a murderous aura, it was at once destroyed by the sword qi.
He frowned, intimidated, and stopped, right wrist lowering, the iron umbrella falling like a streaming star right at the sword, while he himself moved backward.
The umbrella met the sword with a clang and the umbrella deflected up, but the sword’s momentum was not yet exhausted.
Luckily Xiang Zulou was aware enough to anticipate this and back away.
The sword struck air, but Sun Yu’s feet did not stop but pressed close, sword retracting then shooting out again, retracting and shooting out, stabbing again and again, three strokes.
Pressing cold sword qi smashed through the wind and rain filling the sky. Xiang Zulou’s attention was seized, the initiative lost, his offense and guard collapsing, as soon as his feet planted he was moving back hurriedly.
The sword was fast, but he was quicker than the sword. Sun Yu didn’t let up at all, taking big strides forward, tip forward, left hand letting go of the sword and he wielded it now with just his right.
As a result, the sword became more nimble, whizzing out in a succession of thundering silver arcs, weaving a covering net as he advanced.
Awns of sword light flickered like dancing fireflies, sword light rippling like waves reflecting moonlight, a continuous tight stream of strokes sealing off Xiang Zulou.
Soon he was intercepted by the sword net whether he darted left or evaded right. Sun Yu suddenly stole in with a big stride, giving him no time to retreat.
He didn’t force himself, and neither did he back away, but surprisingly he didn’t dodge left or evade right. His right arm jerked suddenly and the closed iron umbrella opened up explosively with a rush of air, quick as anything.
The circular umbrella met the sword net head on.
The sword net was tight, but it could never keep rain out, and how could a rain net not be able to stop a sword net.
A marvelous umbrella. Clang clang clang a string of metal explosions as sword strokes and rain fell on the umbrella, the sword bouncing off and bouncing off again, the strokes not able to link up their momentum, and the sword net collapsed.
“Excellent umbrella!” Sun Yu couldn’t help but exclaim.
Before his words faded, Xiang Zulou raised the umbrella and he swung his left side around, the sword at his waist having somehow ended up in his left hand, sword turning with his body, seizing this fleeting chance to send it stabbing at Sun Yu.
His sword, it turned out, was not entirely just for decoration!
A cold awn of light flashed and the sword was nearly at his chest.
But Sun Yu! Although it came so suddenly he couldn’t guard against it, his ability to adapt was as nimble as could be. The tip of the sword had just cut through his lapel when he dodged out of the way like a ghost.
Xiang Zulou didn’t press but suddenly drew his left arm back and shot it out violently, the sword now being used as a concealed projectile, leaving his hand and flying suddenly toward Sun Yu!
His move was completely unexpected. Suddenly pulling a sword in his left hand and launching a surprise attack was one thing, but to launch it through the air after less than two strokes, who could be expecting that?
Sun Yu couldn’t, but he could adapt deftly. At the first glance of the sword light he dodged out of the way!
The sword brushed past his waist and struck the railing behind him with such force that it embedded two fingerwidths into the wood.
Sun Yu felt the cold of the sword penetrate his muscles as it slid past his midsection and he felt a chill in his heart.
Xiang Zulou was this cunning all on his own, difficult to defend against, if he had to deal with his two sworn brothers “Miracle Hands” Yu Qian and “Thunder Whip” Cui Qun, then it would be even more difficult.
Fortunately Sun Yu was careful and waited till tonight to attack.
Once the sword was thrown, Xiang Zulou’s left hand went to the bottom of the umbrella. He was too fast for Sun Yu to guess what he was up to. His left hand lowered, followed by explosive fallout!
Five or six shiny black objects flew out from his left hand! The burst through the air with a sharp explosive sound.
Sun Yu was ready. He spread apart his feet and stood on his tiptoes and scuttled out of the way to the side like a crab. He moved much quicker than a crab, and though the black streaks were fast, they couldn’t catch him.
The loosed black lights struck the railing one after the other, lodging into the railing in a horizontal line above where the sword was embedded forming a neat line, Turns out they were six umbrella ribs!
Sharpened umbrella ribs were no different from arrows!
“Excellent iron umbrella!” Sun Yu sincerely blurted out in praise once again.
Xiang Zulou exchanged not a word of civility. His left hand reached up and turned back again and three more umbrella ribs shot out!
The air-piercing sound once again, extraordinarily shrill, coming on faster than the first six, and more forcefully.
Sun Yu actually didn’t dodge but raised his left hand and doffed his bamboo rainhat with a swish and received the oncoming umbrella ribs.
Pu pu pu the umbrella ribs embedded into the rainhat.
Sun Yu immediately threw the rainhat at Xiang Zulou and then he leapt into the air, coming at him with his sword.
His approach was powerful and unconstrained. Just as the sword was about to reach its target, he shook with a whizz and stroke after stroke of the sword rained down with awns of cold light!
Xiang Zulou’s reaction was not slow either. His left hand knocked the bamboo rainhat away with the move “Phoenix Spreads a Single Wing” while his right hand raised the iron umbrella to protect his head and block the storm of swords!
A string of tinkles like pearls hitting a jade plate as the rain of swords bounced off one after the other and Sun Yu passed over the top of the umbrella and came down in a torrent on the bridge planks. He paid no heed to the wet planks as he landed solidly and used his shoulders, waist, and knees evenly to launch his ground squatting kungfu, sword light sweeping off in swift rolls toward Xiang Zulou’s lower body.
He not only had very strong martial arts, his mind was sharp, and because his mind was sharp his attacks became more abnormal. If attacking in midair wouldn’t do, he’d just change to a lower body assault. If that didn’t work, he might just jump down and get under the planks and attack up from there!
But he certainly didn’t need to jump off the bridge. The ground squatting kungfu he was using now had already struck at Xiang Zulou’s umbrella’s weak point.
Even the best umbrella can’t block slanting rain from entering!
And that goes the same even if it’s made of iron.
Rain of course couldn’t come out from underfoot. But a sword used with his body close to the ground could!
Xiang Zulou saw it and he felt a chill in his heart. His left hand was holding two umbrella ribs and he stuck close to Sun Yu’s rolling body, not daring to get the least bit careless.
Sun Yu’s ground squatting footwork was fast for sure. In the blink of an eye he had rolled close and suddenly paused and sword light flew up! Xiang Zulou shouted fiercely and his iron umbrella descended like lightning.
The edge of the umbrella canopy hit the tip of the sword with a clang, using up the sword’s momentum, but the umbrella’s force was not yet exhausted and continued to sink down and press the sword down on the bridge planks.
Xiang Zulou’s heart was racing!
The sword was pinned down, what could Sun Yu do now? Before he had time to celebrate, Sun Yu unexpectedly let go of the sword and stood up.
At some point, a dagger about a span long had appeared in Sun Yu’s left hand! He surged up and his left hand exploded out and flung the dagger!
Xiang Zulou’s umbrella was already lowered, exposing his upper body. He did have two umbrella ribs in his left hand, so he wasn’t unarmed, but it all happened suddenly. There was no way to defend against it unless Sun Yu’s attack was slow.
Sun Yu had already let go of the sword and thrown the dagger, no different from staking everything on one move, so of course he put spared no effort.
At such close range, even Sun Yu couldn’t dodge out of the way, not to mention Xiang Zulou! He cried out in alarm as the dagger sunk into his throat! Cutting off his cry of alarm.
He staggered back half a step, then another half a step, his left hand turned over with some effort and loosed the two umbrella ribs at Sun Yu.
Sun Yu at about the same time flipped the sword up with his foot and caught it in his right hand, which turned over and knocked the umbrella ribs away.
Xiang Zulou was still not willing to give up. He made his final counterattack, and launched a butterfly kick.
Sun Yu snorted and simply couldn’t be bothered to move.
Xiang Zulou’s kick was halfway complete, still far away from Sun Yu, when he fell down on his back.
He struggled to get up but could only lift his head up a bit.
The umbrella had slid out of his right hand. He used his left hand to try to push off from the planks while his empty hand right hand held his chest, close to wear the dagger was lodged in his throat, but he didn’t touch it.
Because he knew if he did he would die immediately!
And just like that, he gave Sun Yu an inquiring look.
Sun Yu could tell what Xiang Zulou was thinking. He held the sword out in front of him crosswise, and his thumb and forefinger pinched the ridge of the blade and slowly worked down toward the tip.
“The silver sword is just a symbol, I rarely use it to kill people, especially when I’m facing a masterhand, then I normally use a second sword. A short sword!”
Xiang Zulou’s eyes suddenly contracted. As if to say, “I didn’t know!”
Sun Yu’s finger suddenly flicked the blade and it reverberated a droning dragon’s moan. “No one knows, those who did are all dead.”
Xiang Zulou’s eyes widened, the inquiry in his eyes more intense.
“Relax.” Sun Yu said evenly, seriously. “What I’ve already agreed to with you I will surely do for you.”
Xiang Zulou’s pupils unfocused and his right hand reached up and suddenly pulled the dagger from his throat.
The dagger out, he forced out one last breath.
He howled, “Thank you!”
And he breathed his last and tilted his head to the side.
Blood spurted from his throat, staining the bridge planks, but not splashing on his chest, so Sun Yu needn’t worry about the two silver drafts.
He didn’t shake his head, didn’t sigh, as if he was completely unmoved.
Calmly and unhurried, he retrieved his scabbard, sheathed his sword. Then he walked over to Xiang Zulou and pried open the fingers of his right hand and took back his dagger, wiped the blood off and carefully put it back in the sheath in his left bootleg.
His eyes were so stern and cold, his bearing so composed.
But by the time he reached in and got the two silver drafts from within Xiang Zulou’s robe his hand was shaking.
At about the same time his eyes began to quiver.
He suddenly gripped the silver drafts tightly, clutching them so tightly the tendons on the back of his hand bulged.
Sun Yu mumbled, “I don’t know if it’s you or I who ought to say thanks…”
He heaved a long sigh and looked up. The drizzly rain had ceased. It was nearly the third watch. He finally stood up and started walking.
The dreary lamplight cast a long shadow of his silhouette.
He stepped on his own shadow and into the deep, dark recesses…
A lamp, a silver lamp, a rich and powerful lamp.
The person next to the lamp was like the moon, shining white wrist like frost and snow.
The person was no more than twenty, quite young. Very pretty, skin really like frost, like snow. She picked up a jade spoon with her right hand, fiddled with the incense in her King Wen cauldron burner, cheek resting lightly in her left hand, her upper body leaning against the bird-carved table, barely sitting.
Lamplight shone from the side, casting a faint silhouette of her face and making her even prettier.
Outside the curtain, rain gurgled, spring coming to an end. But the spring in her eyes was still flourishing.
Wind suddenly gusted in through the window and blow over the lamp.
The lamplight flickered, wisps of smoke wafting up from the King Wen cauldron wavered.
The wisps of smoke suddenly curled around the lamplight and had yet to waft before her when she wrinkled her nose in disgust and she blew at it.
The wisps of smoke dispersed, drifting out far away but quickly coalesced again and were borne back on the wind.
Her nose therefore scrunched up more, she shook her head but didn’t blow at it again, only sighed. “The spring breeze…”
Only two words out and a “person” followed up with, “The spring breeze is a stranger, why have you entered my gauze curtain?”
The voice came from midair above her head, but there was no one there, only a green parrot perched on a stand.
The green parrot opened its beak, the word “curtain” lingering on its tongue.
The spring breeze is a stranger, why have you entered my gauze curtain? Ai, wasn’t that from Li Bai’s poem “Spring Thoughts”?
What a parrot, surprisingly able to recite Tang poetry. How many parrots were there like that? 100 taels of gold, for a wealthy person, was well worth the price.
Even if it was just a coincidence, it’s worth admiring!
But she didn’t seem to admire it. She didn’t say anything else, only looked up at the green parrot without the faintest trace of a smile on her face, only a look of displeasure.
The wisps of smoke once again assailed her.
She dropped her eyes, even more unhappy!
Too bad, the parrot might fear here gaze, but smoke? Absolutely not.
She whisked her sleeve and the smoke dispersed, but the scent of it already permeated the room, there was no way to whisk it away.
Fragrant, very fragrant. What fragrance? Sandalwood!
A green parrot, sandalwood, weren’t those the things that the “Finely Dressed Marquis” Xiang Zulou liked?
The scent of sandalwood was intoxicating, a parrot that could speak was also quite likable, but she clearly couldn’t stand them.
Then why was she sitting under the parrot next to sandalwood?
No one would willingly do something they detested. For something someone hated, they must be compelled against their will!
The lamp was a solitary lamp, and she too was all by her lonesome.
The door to the room was closed, she could have done whatever she wanted, yet here she was sitting under a parrot next to sandalwood!
No, there was no one else in the room but her, yet her heart was bound by some invisible fetters. It didn’t matter to her if there were anyone else or not, and she was indifferent to being compelled or not.
if she was married to someone who loved her, he would certainly accommodate her and certainly would not leave her out in the cold in the boudoir.
If she was married to someone who she loved, she would certainly accommodate him, and over time it would become natural, she would get used to it, and there would be no problem with a talking parrot next to her ear or sandalwood incense curling up before her eyes.
So when a man takes a wife he’d better choose a woman who truly loves him, and when a woman is given in marriage, it’s best choose a man who truly loves her.
No doubt this is a one-sided sentiment, but when men and women first have feelings for one another, let me ask you, how often is it not one-sided?
The problem is not appreciating the blessings one has and realizing that being loved by someone is a happiness few people can obtain…
If it’s not someone who loves her, and it’s not someone she loved, then what kind of person had she married?
As a matter of fact it was someone who loved her, only it was a quite unordinary person.
Such a person thinks nothing of wealth and was very hospitable, a person considered a real man, a hero in the eyes of others. Such a person always treats his friends well and would not hesitate to spill blood or lop off a head in the name of public righteousness.
If it was in troubled times, such a person would be an outstanding person. Even in peaceful times, such a person would have a good time in the jianghu. Anyone looking to make friends would first consider such a person, and so this person would never be short of friends wherever he went.
And precisely because he has so many friends, such a person would look after his friends and therefore have no time for his own wife.
And precisely because he has so many friends, such a person was always cavorting with a lot of people and never knew this thing called loneliness, and really wouldn’t understand the pain and suffering of loneliness.
Flushed with wine, absorbed in music and song, boisterously and drunkenly singing in a big party with his friends, such a person would never think of his wife, forlorn and lonely in her quarters, having just finished making herself up, asking her husband in a low voice, is the way I’ve done up my eyebrows trendy?
Being such a wife is really not easy!
And it’s no use for onlookers to say anything. Such a person in the end will just slip back into his old ways, and if she starts a fight about it, the man who just got home will just go back out again, and there’s no guarantee he won’t gallivant around somewhere else for a few months to prove his manliness, leaving the wife up all hours of the night fraught with worry.
It’s not that he’s unfeeling, it’s just that such a person even more fears being made fun of!
Inseparable love causes a hero to lose his ambition, what shames a wise man an heroic man won’t do, and this is such a person’s motto.
Perhaps every once in a while such a person will feel that he has wronged his wife, he might feel regretful, but that is probably something that happens years and years down the road.
Such long, drawn-out days, how can someone get through them?
But at any rate, being the wife of such a person, it’s better to behave properly, or else the consequences will be dreadful to contemplate!
A real man can’t guarantee his wife will remain virtuous and filial. For a long time there’s been the saying that a what happens within a household has nothing to do with such a person, one can only sympathize and not be reproachful.
And how can one know that someone who treats his friends well won’t necessarily treat his wife well…
The “Finely Dressed Marquis” Xiang Zulou was such a person, and she was the “Finely Dressed Marquis” Xiang Zulou’s wife, Shu Mei.
How many nights had she spent lonely she didn’t know, but she could count the days Xiang Zulou had been at home.
Tonight, she was once again she as lonesomely waiting. She didn’t care anymore!
Of course she could go rest, but tonight was different. She had to wait like this until the third watch.
After that she might not have to wait anymore, or she could be waiting forever, or it’s possible that even if she wanted to wait there would be no one alive to wait for.
She was by no means a gambler, but she was in no way inferior to any gambler, all because she had not only staked all her personal savings, she was also prepared, when the time was necessary, to pay with her life!
The third watch… The second watch had passed, could the third watch be far behind?
That’s what she was thinking when the displeasure in her eyes somewhere along the way went away, and then she was laughing, laughing at herself for getting angry over that sandalwood, that parrot. So what? She had endured them for so many years already.
She laughed and once again used the jade spoon to fiddle with the burnt sandalwood incense in the King Wen burner.
Her laugh was seeped in bitterness. Could she really be in the mood to laugh?
The sandalwood was almost used up, burning more and more faintly.
Outside the curtain the rain had ceased, but beads of water still dripped here and there from the eaves.
Gradually, she stopped hearing drops of water drip from the eaves.
And the little room was still.
Drumbeats finally sounded, the third watch!
She silently counted the drumbeats and unconsciously set down the jade spoon and stood up. Just then, the unlocked door of the room was suddenly pushed open with a creak.
“Who is it?” Startled, Shu Mei spun around, the look on her face different, her voice also altered.
“It’s me, Pan Yu!” The voice of the person who had pushed open the door fluttered in like a dancing butterfly. He shut the door and bolted it.
“You scared me half to death…” Shu Mei patted her chest, then suddenly lowered her voice and said, “What are you doing here at a time like this? Get out of here quick, if he comes back and sees you, what a mess…”
“If he was going to come back he should have done so around the second watch. The third watch and he’s still not here, you think he will be coming back?”
Pan Yu smiled. Even when he wasn’t smiling he seemed to be smiling. When he really did smile he looked even more charming and dashing.
And he certainly was handsome, around twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, but when he smiled he looked around twenty-two or twenty-three.
He looked quite happy, almost like he’d transformed into a butterfly, dancing around, circling around twice and then he was right in front of Shu Mei’s face.
Shu Mei watched him in a daze and couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really sure about that?”
“If the one doing were someone else I wouldn’t be, but with ‘Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu’, what’s there to worry about? Didn’t I tell you, Sun Yu is a killer among professional killers? For him, killing someone is easier than taking a bite of cabbage. Since he promised to finish the job before the third watch, there’s no way Xiang would live to hear the third watch. Besides, those Yu and Cui guys weren’t with him tonight, wouldn’t it be easy for Sun Yu to dispose of him?”
“You seem to know a lot about Sun Yu, do you know him?”
“No, but my gold and silver do.”
“Yours?” Shu Mei lip arched up.
“Shoo, it’s yours, but yours, mine, what’s the difference? Are you telling me you still want to separate this and that?”
Shu Mei chuckled. “I was just joking, and here you took it seriously.” In the lamplight her smile was even prettier.
Pan Yu was nearly dumbstruck. He smiled cheekily. “Who’s serious?”
“Then why did you say it so frankly?”
“If talk is frank, so what, as long as the hands are not.” Saying that, Pan Yu’s hands were really not frank in wrapping around Shu Mei’s slender waist.
Shu Mei suddenly frowned.
“What’s wrong now?” Pan Yu said, flummoxed.
“I’m worried…”
“What are you worried about now?”
“Second and Third Uncle…”
What Second and Third Uncle, they’re just Xiang’s sworn brothers, not blood relations. They’d best just stay out of it, or else by the looks of them, I believe Sun Yu will have some more business coming his way!”
“Use Sun Yu again? That would cost a lot!”
“For that so-and-so Xiang I spent all your years’ worth of private savings, but since Xiang is dead, what need do you have to worry about money? Xiang doesn’t have any brothers, and the remaining property needless to say is yours. Do you know how much he’s worth?”
“I never looked into it. What do you think?”
“In the past I secretly calculated it, Heavens, the numbers just about blew my mind. If you tried to convert it all, sixteen abacuses still wouldn’t do the job!” Pan Yu’s eyes in the blink of an eye seemed to become several times brighter.
Shu Mei was unmoved by this. Suddenly she asked, “You calculated it so clearly, not for his property…”
Before Shu Mei could finish, Pan Yu was already shaking his head, denying it over and over. “No, no…”
He was a smart person after all!
Shu Mei relaxed once again. “Whatever, I did this all for you…”
“I know I know…” Pan Yu’s head shakes turned to nods. His head slanted closer and closer. Quickly his lips touched Shu Mei’s ear and his voice became gentle. “The third watch is over. If we keep talking, won’t the night’s fun be over with too soon?”
Shu Mei’s cheeks flushed.
Pan Yu’s lips pressed closer, voice lowered even more.
What did he say? Shu Mei’s cheeks got even redder!
Pan Yu’s head moved away, but his hands didn’t loosen. Shu Mei’s mouth was parted, as if she wanted to say something, but the words were spinning in her throat as she was taken up in Pan Yu’s arms!
The bed was over there. Pan Yu carried Shu Mei over and set her down and deftly doffed his robe and hung it on the back of a chair nearby.
His hands didn’t stop there. With the next move of his hands Shu Mei’s robe slid slowly down her glistening jade-white shoulders.
Underneath was a bright red bandeau, but her cheeks were even redder. She buried her head in Pan Yu’s chest and threw him a seductive glance, finding it difficult to say, “Blow out the lamp…”
“Ha, I almost forgot.” Though Pan Yu said that, he didn’t really want to, but Shu Mei told him to, so he had to listen.
He laid Shu Mei’s robe on the chairback and turned around with a smile. But before he took another step his smile suddenly froze. Behind him, Shu Mei at the same time was also struck dumb!
Two people, four eyes, all attracted to the sight of the silver lamp! The silver lamp was still the same silver lamp, but in the chair next to the lamp that Shu Mei had just been sitting in now sat a person!
The person wore black tightfit nightwalking clothes and a black cloth mask covering his face, revealing only two glittering eyes. He was watching Pan Yu and Shu Mei with a keen look, like a sword, a sharp sword that seemed to pierce their hearts.
His right hand rested on his knee, his left on the table, his palm resting on a sheathed sword, a silver sword!
See the sword. Pan Yu’s eyes were truly fixated on it.
“Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu!” He finally blurted out.
It indeed was Sun Yu. He laughed. The laugh came from his throat, sounding unusually low and deep.
Pan Yu chuckled twice, but it was made between his teeth. In reality he had nothing at all to be happy about, he just laughed because Sun Yu had. Shu Mei wasn’t laughing, hands crossed clutching her shoulders, shrinking back, her eyes already turned to the door.
The door was shut well, how did Sun Yu get in?
She really wanted to know. She asked haltingly, lips quivering, the sound she emitted so low even Pan Yu didn’t know what she was trying to say.
Sun Yu though heard clearly. He laughed again. “The window!”
Such a simple answer Shu Mei was struck dumb again. She was surprised at herself for asking such a stupid question, why hadn’t she thought of that before?
“Oh, the window, Brother Sun came through the window…” Pan Yu hastily put in, just saying whatever.
Sun Yu paid no mind, only laughed.
Pan Yu was baffled by the laugh, but he relaxed. He could tell that Sun Yu’s laugh had no malice in it, but he still wanted to know what was going on.”
“May I be so bold as to ask what makes Brother Sun so happy?”
Sun Yu stopped laughing, eyes gleaming brighter.
“When a person’s down on his luck, he runs into snags everywhere. When he’s in luck, earning tens of thousands of taels of gold is very easy.”
“Brother Sun, I feel the same way.”
“Shu Mei I knew lived here, but where you live, Pan Yu, I don’t know. I originally thought to ask Shu Mei where to find you, but unexpectedly I meet you here. Doesn’t that save me a lot of time?”
“It really does save you a lot of time.” Pan Yu seemed to know full well what Sun Yu meant. He clapped his hands and nodded. “But, earlier when I was at Master Liu’s listening to the report and happened to see you, Brother Sun, it seemed you said things will be settled before the third watch tonight. You didn’t say anything about coming to report to me personally after it was over, so I can’t help being somewhat surprised…”
“You think I came here for that?”
“If not that, could there be some problem with the money? I’ve already paid in full, I didn’t short you a whit…”
“I know.”
“Then, Brother Sun, why did you…”
“To take you two to see Xiang Zulou.”
Pan Yu and Shu Mei heard that and their faces sank. They happened to blurt out at the same time, “He’d not dead yet?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“So then he is dead…”
“You two can still see him when he’s dead.”
At that Pan Yu and Shu Mei’s faces turned even more unsightly. They weren’t idiots, after all.
Pan Yu couldn’t be sure. He stammered, “You mean you’re going to kill us?”
“I’m really sorry.” Sun Yu’s eyes flashed murder.
“Why?” Shu Mei cried.
“2,000 taels of gold.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Xiang Zulou!”
“He told you…”
“To kill the ones who ordered a hit on him.”
Pan Yu pulled a long face. “You can’t…”
“Why can’t I?”
“We paid you first…”
“Isn’t that matter settled now?”
“Yes, it is, but… Ai! Let’s say all that makes sense, but since he’s dead, why do you…”
“I already promised him.”
“I’m sure this is no problem money can’t handle. We’ll give you more so long as you let us off!”
Before Sun Yu had time to respond, Pan Yu impatiently said, “He paid 2,000 taels, I’ll pay 10,000, how about that… If not, then 30,000 taels! 40,000…”
Sun Yu didn’t comment, just looked at Pan Yu coldly.
“50,000!” Pan Yu’s forehead was beaded with sweat.
“Even 50,000 taels is no good.” Sun Yu’s voice was calm. “I never go back on my word with anyone, not even a dead man.”
Pan Yu was practically on his knees. “Brother Sun, Big Bro Sun, Big Daddy Sun…”
“Pan Yu!” Sun Yu cut him off suddenly. “If you’re a man, stop with the nonsense!”
Pan Yu was quiet, cheeks blushing profusely.
“If you’re reasonable you’ll just kill me!” Shu Mei suddenly cut in. “The money was mine and the idea was mine as well!”
Sun Yu heard that and looked at Shu Mei strangely.
Shu Mei looked calm, with the bold spirit of one facing death unflinchingly on her face.
He looked again at Pan Yu, who was just looking on as if it were nothing.
Sun Yu couldn’t help but sigh. “You laid yourself out, I understand, but if I let Pan Yu off, I really can’t kill you!”
Shu Mei hung her head in despair.
“Sun!” Pan Yu suddenly stuck his chest out.
Sun Yu gave him a look of disdain in return. “What?”
“Don’t push me too far!”
“And if I do, what are you gonna do?”
“I… You must know where you are, who’s gonna let you just run wild around here. Get out of here in a hurry if you know what’s good for you, or else, hah!”
Pan Yu did his best to raise his voice, his voice was strained. “All I have to do is call people in here, and then you watch!”
“Call them if you want,” Sun Yu said, but Pan Yu was speechless.
He hadn’t forgotten that he was half-naked, nor had he forgotten what room he was in, and he hadn’t forgotten that it was already past the third watch.
Like this, in this place, at this time, if he could explain things clearly then he would call people in. But too bad, he really could not. His forehead was dripping with sweat and his puffed up chest deflated. He backed up, then again, and sat on the bed.
Shu Mei unconsciously got close to him. In her mind there was no safer place than next to Pan Yu.
But she was wrong. Pan Yu, yes, did tenderly draw her close to him, but then he shoved her over to Sun Yu and shot away like an arrow in the opposite direction!
He clearly had some martial arts training, he was quick and nimble, unexpectedly extraordinary. If it had been someone else, he would be uneasy to catch.
But Sun Yu was simply a demon incarnate. As soon as Pan Yu moved he sprang up and shot both arms out, his left hand toward Shu Mei and drawing his sword with his right and stabbing at Pan Yu!
Instantly his left hand forked onto Shu Mei’s throat while the silver sword in his right hand stabbed Pan Yu through the nape of his neck and out through his throat.
Pan Yu still had some strength left and kept going forward, the sword leaving his throat and blood spurting out.
He opened his mouth to cry out, but his throat was choked with blood!
he grabbed at air a few times then finally fell down.
Sun Yu didn’t even spare a look at Pan Yu as he stabbed him. He flicked his wrist and flung the blood off the sword and loosened his grip on Shu Mei’s throat.
His left hand had held her tightly, and Shu Mei wasn’t strangled to death.
But she was scared stiff, eyes looking blankly at Pan Yu on the floor, not moving nor speaking.
She really never dreamed Pan Yu would do that to her!
Sun Yu’s hand no doubt could strangle her to death, but Pan Yu’s hand could rip her heart to shreds!
A dead man of course could not come back to life, and a shattered heart was not easily mended.
She would rather Sun You strangle her, if only because no matter what, a dead person would not know pain. She was not dead, but her heart was shattered, her feeling broken into little pieces.
Wasn’t that harder to bear than death?
Sun Yu took two steps back and sat back down as before. He looked at Shu Mei and suddenly asked, “Do you regret it?”
Shu Mei seemed to snap out of a dream. She shook her head. “No, and I don’t hold a grudge toward anyone, not you, not him. If I’m going to resent, if I’m going to hate, I can only resent myself, only hate myself!”
That silenced Sun Yu.
“Do you know who he was to me?”
“Seemed like a cousin.”
“You said seemed, that means you don’t believe it?”
“To be honest, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this sort of thing. Strange, it’s always cousins, so I always hear older male cousin, and it always feels a bit…”
“No matter what you think, he really was my older male cousin. I got along well with him ever since I was little. If Xiang Zulou had not appeared, sooner or later I would have become his wife.”
“So then marrying Xiang Zulou was not your intention, but your parents’…”
“No, my parents didn’t force me. They would have let me have my way even if I wanted to marry my cousin, they wouldn’t object, but I was so poor, plus Xiang Zulou at that time was a hero in my eyes…”
Sun Yu nodded in understanding. Perhaps when he was younger he had longed for such a legendary hero-beauty matchup. Shu Mei thought back to those bygone days, the look in her eyes already bleary. “Whenever he spurred his horse past my entrance I just had to look at him blankly, watch him fade into the distance, vanish. Sometimes he would slow his horse and look back and smile at me, wittingly or unwittingly, and I couldn’t help having crazy thoughts, but I never could have imagined that he would really like me, how could I not say yes? I was just scared Dad and Mom would think it taboo and refuse him…”
“So your wish was fulfilled, what else did you want?”
“Yep! I ought to have been satisfied, but in fact I was wrong from the start. A hero in the end is not an ideal husband.”
“It can’t be easy to be a hero. Often you have to take care of others, only then can you think of yourself, but a hero’s time is not as long as anyone else’s. Taking care of others, where is the time to look after oneself?”
Shu Mei sighed with feeling. “I don’t know how he spent his days out there, but I can count how many days he spent at home.”
“So then he did come home at times…”
“Every time he came home he always had a bunch of people around him, always staggering around when he came in the room. If he wasn’t eight-tenths drunk he was at least seven-tenths!”
“Earlier I saw him come back from a banquet, but he looked sober as could be, didn’t seem like he had had any liquor at all…”
“Then you may have noticed in the daytime in the parlor the two sworn brothers waiting for him and his live-in jianghu friends. Even if he didn’t get drunk outside, when he got home he would get drunk.”
“Oh…” Sun Yu said with a faint sigh.
“I don’t know if you’ve taken a wife or not. If you have, right now I think you ought to be home. Yes, I’m not a good woman, but the taste of loneliness is not easy to bear.”
Sun Yu was silent.
Shu Mei looked at him, then suddenly laughed. “You, you’re very strange.”
“You, you’re even stranger, still able to talk about so much.”
“I didn’t expect you to allow me to speak.”
“Luckily what you spoke was not a load of nonsense.”
“To you it’s probably nonsense.” Shu Mei shook her head, suddenly asked, “Why did you let me go instead of just strangling me then?”
“I don’t like nor am I used to killing with my hands.”
“Isn’t holding a sword using your hands?”
“Yes, but it’s still the sword that does the killing.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand.”
“Is it that you’re afraid of getting the reek of blood on your hands?”
“I am afraid of that.”
“In other words, you never planned on killing for the rest of your life. When you decide to throw away your sword, you’ll still be clean.”
“Can’t throw your hands away… It sounds silly…”
“You nevertheless want peace of mind.”
Sun Yu couldn’t help but nod. “You, you’re smart.”
“Do smart people do foolish things?”
“People say that emotions can blind anyone. Smart people are no exception.”
Shu Mei was silent for some time, then suddenly sighed. “So why hasn’t your sword struck yet?”
“When facing me people always try to survive, no one tries to die, except you. Facing someone who’s talking and laughing like it’s nothing, helpless waiting to be executed, has extinguished all my murderous intent.”
“So then what are you going to do?”
“Wait, wait till your will collapses, wait till my murderous intent is reignited.”
“And if it doesn’t happen?”
“I haven’t thought that far yet…”
“Actually, you needn’t worry…” Shu Mei laughed sadly and suddenly let out a high-pitched cry!
Such an alarming sharp cry! Sun Yu’s silver sword involuntarily stabbed! The cry was cut off, the sword, clogging up her throat!
The muscles of Shu Mei’s face spasmed, but she was still smiling, a contented smile, so dreary.
Sun Yu was stunned. Gradually his hand holding the sword shivered, and then his body. Although he was masked, the change in his expression indiscernible, but his exposed eyes revealed his complex inner turmoil. He didn’t know if it was pity, admiration, or surprise.
The shivering sword came out of Shu Mei’s throat.
Shu Mei fell, still smiling. Sun Yu shivered even more and abruptly spun around and put his hands down on the table and lowered his head and started coughing as if he wanted to vomit. But in the end he didn’t vomit, he just felt nauseous.
The first time he killed someone he had felt the same way. Then a second time, a third time… His hands became more and more steady, his heart became more and more numb. He no longer felt anything when he killed, so even he felt it strange that right now on this day he felt sick killing someone, but why, why?
He couldn’t help but look over at Shu Mei.
In the pale yellow lamplight Shu Mei’s face was already deathly white. Red bandeau, blood pouring from her throat even redder. Blood still warm, her feelings likely not yet cold either.
“Were you wrong, was Pan Yu wrong, or was Xiang Zulou wrong?” Sun Yu heaved a long sigh and sat back down.
The sound of a sleeve snapping through the air outside the room arrived just in time.
Sun Yu, who had not yet settled into his seat, left the chair again. He knew that this time he had been wrong. Once Shu Mei hit the floor he ought to have left. On a still night like this, how could such a sharp cry not alert someone?
He left the chair, crouched down, and scurried over next to the door.
When it came to adapting to circumstances, he excelled at it. The snapping air sound came from the window, so even though he had come in through the window, he would not leave through the window. Though the lamp was still lit, if he blew it out it would just let them know someone was still inside the room. Because the lamp was still lit, if he stood up his shadow would have been cast on the window paper, so he had crouched down.
All of a sudden he had to deal with more people, but how many people was it?
The sound of rustling air got closer, followed by the sound of people calling out.
“Sister, what happened?”
Sun Yu of course wasn’t going to answer. As they called out he pushed up the bolt on the door.
The rustling of air was met at the same time with a rip and two people pounced in, one through the window, the other through the door.
At about the same time, Sun Yu was already half out the door and ran right into the one about to come in through the door.
Sun Yu was quick, but their eyes were not slow either.
“Who are you?” one of them shouted. The man’s right hand went to his waist and removed a Thunder God iron whip1 four spans and six fingerwidths long with thirteen nodes, making it look like a pagoda, and he bent his knees and flew up.
Sun Yu made no sound, not did he back away.
“Coming here masked in the dead of night, I assume you’re up to no good. Okay, first get a taste of my whip, then we’ll talk!” His cheerful talk exploded like a thunderclap and the whip arrived with him, a black sheen flashing violently, stabbing for Sun Yu!
Sun Yu seemed to be more supple than a willow catkin. Before the whip arrived, he fluttered out with the wind from the whip and fluttered over to a railing not far away.
The man didn’t slacken in the least but pursued closely toward the railing, and here came a second whip stroke.
He was fast alright, but Sun Yu was faster!
The whip fell and the railing splintered into pieces with a crash. If the whip had hit his body he would have been finished.
The man pulled back the whip and looked up to see Sun Yu hanging from the ornamented roofbeam. “Nice moves!” he couldn’t help but blurt out.
“Thunder Whip Cui Qun?”
“So you know me…”
Before he finished speaking, the person who had come in through the window had come around after being alerted by their shouting.
High cheekbones and lean cheeks, taller and thinner than Cui Qun, but he carried himself much more nimbly.
Two daggers were stuck in his belt on the left and right. He was barehanded and didn’t wait for his feet to be planted firmly.
“Watch out for these projectiles!” His hands whipped up and cold star points suddenly flew out from between the fingers of his seemingly empty hands.
The sharp piercing sound instantly broke the late night silence. Sun Yu at about the same time let go of the roofbeam and spun around in midair.
He had been more or less leaning against a pillar, so now he spun around to the other side of the pillar and once again grabbed the roofbeam, already on the other side of the pillar.
He dangled there as the projectiles hit, nailing into the pillar in unison, twelve fling arrows!2
The arrows entered the pillar a full fingerwidth deep in an interlocking crisscross pattern. Even someone like Sun Yu would have had a hard time dealing with them, and he never did anything unless he was sure of success, so he got out of the way instead.
He laughed. “Miracle Arrow Hands Yu Qian?”
It was indeed Yu Qian. He stopped and nodded. “I say, friend, who are you?”
“Sun Yu!”
“The Silver Sword Assassin!” Yu Qian and Cui Qun were both visibly moved. It’s true that a person’s reputation follows one like a tree’s shadow.
Cui Qun couldn’t help but grip his whip tighter, and Yu Qian’s hands unconsciously went to the handles of his left and right daggers. “Buddy Sun, I know what business you’re in, but I wonder who it is you’re after tonight?”
“Pan Yu and Shu Mei!”
“By the looks of it, Buddy Sun, you succeeded.”
Sun Yu just laughed.
Cui Qun laughed too, an angry laugh. “Sun, what kind of place do you think this is?”
“Whether a dragon’s pond or a tiger’s den, I am here come what may.”
“Nice answer! Then you just stay here!”
“I’m afraid you can’t detain me.”
“You wait and see if I can detain you or not!” Cui Qun was extremely furious. He raised his whip, set himself, and was about to pounce when Yu Qian off to the side called for him to halt.
“Hold it!” He turned to Sun Yu. “Buddy Sun is bold and decisive, I admire that, but there’s one thing I want to get clear.”
“Ask whatever you want to ask.”
“I hear that Buddy Sun kills not just out of fun, but is rather a matter of money. So I want to ask, who paid you this time?”
Sun Yu was silent.
“Buddy Sun, you’d better speak frankly, or else, heh!” Yu Qian used that fake laugh in place of his next words. His hands gripped the hilts of his left and right daggers.
Just then, the courtyard in front of the building lit up with lanterns. In the pale yellow lanternlight, the Xiang guards had their weapons out, waiting to act, plus a dozen or so people of the martial world of all types, some hanging back in the courtyard, some up on the rooftiles, likely all of them Xiang Zulou’s befriended heroes he normally hung out with.
Anyone able to befriend Xiang Zulou would certainly not be lacking in strength, plus Yu Qian and Cui Qun, even if Sun Yu wanted to kill his way out it would be hard to do so.
Yu Qian’s “or else, heh!” really did have some weight to it.
Sun Yu’s eyes twinkled from behind his facecloth. He suddenly laughed. “Speaking frankly I think would make it even worse.”
“But no matter what, it’s much better than not speaking at all.”
“Alright, then listen up.”
“Who was it?”
“Xiang Zulou!” Sun Yu said frankly.
Yu Qian was unexpectedly taken aback. Before he had time to do anything, Cui Qun next to him spat out, “Bullshit!” And he charged.
Sun Yu paid no attention.
Cui Qun was going to do something, but Yu Qian called him off again. Then he asked Sun Yu, “Buddy Sun, do you know who Pan Yu is?”
“Shu Mei’s older cousin.”
“And Shu Mei?”
“Xiang Zulou’s wife, your sister-in-law.”
“you know that?” Yu Qian looked puzzled.
“Of course I know.”
“Then…”
“If you’re not going to believe me, why ask?”
Yu Qian was silent. Cui Qun next to him couldn’t help but bellow, “Sun, tell me, what’s the reason for all of this?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“How is it obvious?”
“Go look inside the room.”
Before Sun Yu was finished, Cui Qun had entered the room, such a crude and rash fellow.
Yu Qian didn’t move, just stared at Sun Yu.
Just a short while later, Cui Qun came out from the room with an unsightly look on his face, mumbling to himself, “Male and female cousins, cousins my ass.”
Yu Qian heard that and frowned and was about to ask about it when Cui Qun waved a hand at Sun Yu.
“Sun, you can go.”
“Then, excuse me…” Sun Yu was about to fly off, but Cui Qun stopped him again.
“Wait. What happened to night it’s best you hurry up and forget about it. You’re a smart person, of course you know how to control your mouth.”
“That you can rest assured. I’ve always been least interested in talking, and I’ve always been quite forgetful.” Sun Yu’s eyes flashed. “So can I go now?”
“Wait!” Cui Qun stopped him again.
“Now what?”
“Where’s my big brother?”
“You know his uncle’s place?”
Cui Qun nodded.
“There’s a bridge nearby.”
“I know that bridge.”
“He’s on the bridge waiting for news.”
“Oh, I need to go report.”
“If you all go then of course there’s no need of me.”
“Of course we don’t need you. Right now it’s best if you get as far away as you can and don’t let me see you again.”
“I heard you have quite a temper.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
Sun Yu laughed and sprang off, shooting up to the opposite roof like an arrow.
He really did have a mind to laugh. For him, this night had went quite smoothly, something really worth being happy about.
Of course he also knew that if Cui Qun had not been there to take over and Yu Qian had been in charge instead, then things wouldn’t have been so simple. All because Yu Qian was very smart, a person who loved to use his brain.
But even if he was the smartest, most brainy person, if he didn’t piece together what had happened clearly he would not be able to use his smart, not be able to use his brains.
So now he was just standing there staring.
He looked on as Sun Yu flitted up onto the roof more nimbly and gracefully than a swallow and vanished into the dark.
Yu Qian really couldn’t hold it in any longer. He stared at Cui Qun. “Third Bro, just what happened?”
“Second Bro if you want to know, why don’t you go inside and take a look. I’m sure that would be way easier than me explaining, and would spare me from getting angry.”
Yu Qian turned to the room with a puzzled look in his eyes, then finally walked over and went inside.
A little while later Yu Qian came back out, frowning even more, face looking even more unsightly, but his eyes remained calm.
“Strange.” He just spat out that one word then was silent.
“What’s strange about it, it’s all clear enough.” Cui Qun had a disapproving look on his face.
“Yes, it is clear, but…”
“But what?”
“Third Bro, I’m sure you’ve heard that family scandals cannot be spread.”
“I’ve not just heard it, I’ve heard it too many times.”
“Then just think about it, what kind of person is Big Bro, of what stature, that if something like that happened in his house do you think he would just get some unfamiliar professional killer to handle it?”
“Maybe Big Bro couldn’t bear to do it himself.”
“You know how Big Bro is, if you say he’s softhearted or that he couldn’t bear it, what a joke.”
“Then…” Cui Qun’s face began to change.
“Didn’t that Sun guy say Big Bro was at the bridge waiting for news?”
“That’s what he said.”
“That’s even more strange. The Xiang manor is full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, Big Bro also boasted once that even with Sun’s ability, who could guarantee that he could come and go freely, that he could not alert anyone, that he could finish it that night, that he could report back that night. Alright, let’s say Sun Yu could do all of that, and Big Bro believed he could do it, at what time in what weather, in the late at night when it’s all quiet, cold wind and rain blowing, not convenient to go out anywhere, why would he be waiting at the bridge? Moreover, even if Big Bro had set the time, set the location…”
“How would Big Bro know that Pan Yu would for sure be at home and would be with Shu Mei?” Cui Qun suddenly smartened up.
“By the looks of it…” Yu Qian’s face was more unsightly. “I’m afraid…”
Cui Qun hastily asked, “Afraid what?”
Yu Qian didn’t answer, just turned around instructed the people in the courtyard, “Hurry up and get lanterns and horses ready, then guard the surroundings here carefully. No one’s allowed to take even half a foot up these stairs until the two of us get back.”
The men dispersed and got to work.
“Second Brother Yu!”
One of their jianghu friends over there couldn’t resist. “What do you need us to do?”
“If you all don’t mind trouble, might as well come along with us.”
“Second Brother Yu, what kind of talk is that, Big Brother Xiang treats us like brothers, never mind trouble, even if our lives were on the line and we were hacked with knives don’t even think of leaving us out.”
Such a rousing statement really moved Yu Qian to hear it. He cupped a hand over his fist in salute to them. “What you all just said, I will remember for the rest of my life.”
“Second Brother Yu, you’re being too ceremonious, but what actually happened?”
“Right now we can’t really say.”
“Does it have to do with Big Brother Xiang?”
As Yu Qian nodded, a group of people were already leading the horses over along with the lanterns. He and Cui Qun didn’t even wait to climb down the stairs, they just leapt up and over the railing and into the courtyard and jumped into the saddles.
Everyone took a horse and mounted up.
Twenty or so riders one behind the other galloped out of the Xiang manor. Frenzied hoofbeats broke through the deep night’s silence.
“I just hope Big Bro is at the bridge…” Yu Qian was in the lead, thinking only of finding Xiang Zulou and getting to the bottom of this.
The rain had long ago ceased, an endless dark enveloping the land and enveloping Yu Qian’s heart.
No starlight, no moonlight, only the round pale lanternlight undulating with the horses, swinging up and down, back and forth…
Notes
- This is often translated as a truncheon or cudgel or rod, but the word actually used is whip 鞭. That’s because back in the day horse whips were sticklike and rigid, not flicky crops. So this weapon is made to resemble a horse whip. The original text just says Thunder God whip 雷神鞭. I added “iron” to hopefully make it a bit clearer for those who don’t read footnotes that this is not flexible Indiana Jones style whip.
- Fling arrows translates 甩手箭, which means hand-thrown arrows. These are smaller like darts of course, but the word used is arrow and not 鏢, which is the usual word for dart, so I went with arrow. In this context they can kinda be used interchangeably.