A Step into the Past

Book 19 Chapter 9 – I Concede

Even after his return to the Wu Residence, Xiang Shaolong will still randomly think about this strange lady Shi Sufang.

Teng Yi, Jing Jun, Wu Guo and Zhao Da were in discussion with Ji Yanran. Everyone looked somber.

On seeing that her husband is so obedient that he actually came back before the first watch, Ji Yanran smiled and said, “We were just discussing how we can find the assassination organization that was sent to assassinate Lord Zhengchu. It’s really too dangerous if we allow them to strike.”

Teng Yi furrowed his brows, “The problem is, we cannot publicize this matter. We can only do it secretly, the less people to know about it, the better. Otherwise, Guoxin’s identity will be exposed.”

Jing Jun gave a cold snort, “I don’t trust Guoxin at all.”

Ji Yanran pursed her lips into a smile and said, “We won’t trust Guoxin easily as well but we have to give him a chance to prove his own words!”

Xiang Shaolong sat down next to Jing Jun and said with a laugh, “This is called abandoning the dark for the light, turning over a new leaf, correcting a mistake. Xiaojun, you have to remember that forgiveness requires even more courage and love than hatred.”

Naturally all of them have never heard such a phrase or such logic and they were all stunned.

Ji Yanran asked happily, “My lord husband seems to be in a good mood tonight. Is it because you’ve gotten Shi Sufang’s favor again?”

Xiang Shaolong thought of Shi Sufang. He sighed, “Shi Sufang can only be described as being a rare lady. I think she has absolutely no interest in relationships between men and women at all. What she likes is Zhuang Zhou, she’s disdainful about her own singing skills. She has an intense and unique way of looking at things. Lao Ai ended up like a mouse pulling a turtle*, not knowing where to begin and getting snubbed whereas I kept a respectful distance. End of report, is the talented lady satisfied?”

*Mouse pulling a turtle – A Chinese idiom, meaning an impossible task

As soon as he said the phrase ‘mouse pulling a turtle’, Ji Yanran laughed so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath. Jing Jun and the rest were all smiling but by now, they are all used to Xiang Shaolong’s endless new and interesting phrases.

Wu Guo sighed, “Who can be more eloquent than Master Xiang? Luckily I have been Master Xiang’s follower for a long time and picked up some of his speech. That’s how I managed to woo Xiao Weiwei successfully, and did not disappoint Master Jing.”

Only now did Xiang Shaolong realize that Jing Jun had been supporting Wu Guo’s pursue of Zhou Wei. He turned towards Zhao Da and asked, “Are you and your brothers doing well in Xianyang?”

Zhao Da revealed a look of gratitude as he nodded his head, “We’ve never had such glorious days before. As soon as we reveal Master Xiang’s name, even those from Zhongfu Residence have to give us some measure of respect. Madam Fang also allowed us to choose the pretty girls to start our families. Hai, Lady left us too soon” Once he spoke of Zhao Ya, his eyes reddened.

Teng Yi was afraid of bringing up Xiang Shaolong’s sad past again and changed the topic, “We’ve decided to transfer a batch of men back to Xianyang, to be in charge of searching for this group of extremely dangerous warriors. We’ve also informed Lord Changwen, asking him to report this matter immediately to the Crown Prince. It’s the Spring Festival the day after tomorrow, I’m afraid our enemies will make use of the Spring Festival Ceremony to strike when the Crown Prince leaves the Palace. According to custom, the route to River Wei has already been decided and it cannot be changed. If the assassins hide themselves amongst the welcoming crowd along the paths, it’ll be very difficult to spot them.”

Xiang Shaolong suddenly shuddered as he remembered how many times he had protected politically important persons in the 21st century. He can be considered an expert in anti-terrorism so won’t he be able to put to useful practice what he has learnt for this situation? Everyone saw his strange expression and were all looking at him, stunned, under the impression that he had thought of something shocking.

Xiang Shaolong waved his hand offhandedly as he said with excitement, “I’ll be in charge of security for the Spring Festival this time. After the morning court session tomorrow, Xiaojun will come with me to survey the route to the Spring Festival Ceremony. Let us have a face to face combat with these elite assassins who are from the various countries, each using our own methods and see who is better.”

Everyone looked at him in astonishment as Xiang Shaolong smiled and said, “The most vicious part of Pu Hu’s plan, is that if something happens to the Crown Prince while on his way to the Spring Festival Ceremony, Lord Changwen and I will be punishable by death. He’s killing multiple birds with one stone. From what I see, Pu Hu’s intellect is definitely on par with Lu Buwei, just that he’s a little down on luck. Just like my duel with Guan Zhongxie the last time, he placed his bet on the wrong person!” He stood up and stretched lazily before adding, “This time they’re still down on their luck, because they are facing me, Xiang Shaolong.”

The next morning, Xiang Shaolong woke up as usual before the cock crows to practice his swordplay before leaving for the Palace. As he was especially early, he made use of the little extra time to look for Xiao Pan.

Xiao Pan may be the most hardworking prince in the history of the Qin family as he listened to Li Si’s reports while having breakfast so that he can handle the court discussion later.

On seeing that Xiang Shaolong has arrived, Xiao Pan hurriedly dispensed with ceremony and asked him to take the lower seat as he said with a serious expression, “Pu Hu and Du Bi are indeed audacious, how dare they have ulterior motives towards me. Guoxing was able to redeem his mistake, General please see how he should be rewarded!”

Xiang Shaolong exchanged a look with Li Si, then said with a laugh, “Your subordinate advices Crown Prince to address me as Grand Tutor. If you address me as General, it feels as if I’ll be leading an army into battle any time.”

In the whole of Qin, Xiang Shaolong is the only person who could speak to Xiao Pan like that.

Xiao Pan chortled, “As soon as I see Grand Tutor, all my worries are gone.” He turned towards Li Si and said, “Li Si, can you let Grand Tutor have a look at the new coin we’ll be launching for Black Dragon!”

Li Si happily placed the new coin on Xiang Shaolong’s table.

Xiang Shaolong picked it up for a look. It’s a round coin with a round hole in the middle, and written on it the words half tael, with an abstract looking dragon shape. It’s really a vast difference from the image of money he had in mind.

Li Si returned to his table and said with a sigh, “Learned Lady Ji indeed lives up to her reputation, with her proposal to change the political system. Not only is it practical and feasible, the political and economical reforms are also taken into consideration. The timeline for implementation is also indicated and the stages of implementation are just right such that the people won’t feel forced into it. Please tell Learned Lady that Li Si is in total awe.”

Xiao Pan obviously thinks very highly of Li Si as he said with a laugh, “Official Li is too humble. Official Li has given a lot of examples in the whole proposal, and has contributed as much merit as Grand Tutor Ji.”

Li Si hurriedly knelt down to give his thanks.

Xiao Pan was silent for a moment before asking Xiang Shaolong, “How is grand Tutor planning to deal with the assassins who are coming to Xianyang this time?”

Xiang Shaolong replied easily, “Don’t worry, Crown Prince. The only chance those rebels have to strike is to take us by surprise during the ceremony when your Highness is paying homage to the river god. But now that we’re aware of this, the whole situation is reversed. I will work closely with Lord Changwen and crush our enemies’ devious plot. I guarantee that not only will no harm come to your Highness, we can also make use of this chance to show those who are involved from the 6 countries our prowess.”

Xiao Pan looks up upon him like a deity and he exclaimed joyfully, “With Grand Tutor in charge of this matter, there’s nothing for me to worry.”

Xiang Shaolong replied, “But your Highness must promise to let me have full control of everything tomorrow, otherwise it’ll be difficult to execute our marvelous plan.”

Xiao Pan chortled, “Then I will be Grand Tutor’s subordinate for one day tomorrow and obey all your instructions.”

Li Si gave a heartfelt smile as he felt the total trust and sincerity between the two of them.

The morning court session started with no major upheaval but once Lu Buwei brought up his intention to split the position of Salt and Iron Official into two positions, a fierce debate immediately ensued.

Xiang Shaolong listened for a long time and could only barely understand the gist of the matter.

It turns out that before Duke Xiao, almost all the trades in Qin were monopolized by the government. But in order to handle the production in these trades, the Qin government set up government agencies to take charge of the different industries. One of the most important posts is that of the Salt and Iron Official as it affects both the common people and the military.

But with the expansion of Qin, a few iron producing centers in the east have slowly fallen into the hands of the Qin people. The duties of the Salt and Iron Official are getting heavier day by day and there are also instances of smuggling salt and iron for personal gains. Besides, salt and iron are basically two entirely unrelated products. Therefore Lu Buwei came up with this suggestion.

The main problem with Lu Buwei’s suggestion is that he wanted his own people in charge of Qin’s economic and military matters, the two most important lifeline of the empire. Therefore Lord Changpin, Li Si and the rest are trying to delay this until the birth of Black Dragon so that they can make use of the opportunity to take these two positions back.

Naturally it’s easier to delay than to object and in the end, there was no determined outcome. Xiao Pan gave the orders for this to be future discussed and the morning court session ended.

Xiang Shaolong returned home and Teng Yi and Jing Jun are already waiting for him to scout the route that Xiao Pan will be taking tomorrow morning.

Xiang Shaolong asked, “How’s the situation?”

Teng Yi replied, “Guoxing just reported that Wu Guo had accompanied him to visit the various leaders. According to him, there’s not much headway regarding the assassins.”

Jing Jun added, “I’ve discussed it with Lord Changwen. He said we can just find some excuse, for example some guard has stolen items from the palace, then we’ll seal the city and search each and every household. Ever since Shang Yang’s reforms have been put in place, those who do not report crimes are guilty of the same offense so it should be easy to find any suspicious people. But if these people are hiding in some general or senior officials’ residences, it’ll be more difficult.”

Xiang Shaolong replied, “You must not act rashly. We must pretend that we know nothing at all about this and tell Guoxing not to investigate so that we won’t put them on their guard.”

Teng Yi smiled, “Third Brother seemed very confident about the Crown Prince’s safety tomorrow?”

Xiang Shaolong gave a slight smile and summoned Zhao Da. After giving him instructions to inform Lord Wenchang and Guoxing, he left with Teng Yi and Jing Jun.

They left the city of Xianyang and walked towards River Wei on the official road. Along the way, they only saw endless grassland and knolls. They can’t help but feel energized as they enjoyed the scenery, almost forgetting the purpose of their trip.

The emerald lake, the luscious green grass with rays reflecting off them is simply enchanting.

Once in a while they will see shepherds with their herds with cows, goats or horses on the grassland and such a scene added a sense of life and energy on the land.

Teng Yi pointed to a small hillock which was overgrown with trees and said, “If someone hides up there with a strong bow, he’ll be able to shoot any target travelling on the official road.”

Xiang Shaolong was jolted awake from the mesmerizing scenery and he instructed Jing Jun to note down on his scroll all the possible locations that the assassins can make use of.

Although it’s noon, but when they travelled through a densely forested segment of the road, the morning fog has yet to disperse. The air is moist and vision is little hazy. Teng Yi paled as he said, “From the looks of the weather, there will be heavy fog tomorrow. It’s extremely to our disadvantage.”

Xiang Shaolong replied calmly, “I don’t think it’s entirely to our disadvantage. At least we know our enemies will choose the time when the fog is the heaviest when we are going there to strike and not strike on the return journey. Secondly, the heavy fog is even more favorable to the birth of Black Dragon.”

Jing Jun said in awe, “Third Brother is obviously very confident.”

Xiang Shaolong asked happily, “My two good brothers, have you every heard of the story of ‘Attacking the wrong carriage’?”

Teng and Jing replied concurrently in confusion, “Attacking the wrong carriage?”

Only then did Xiang Shaolong remember that ‘Attacking the wrong carriage’* incident happened after Xiao Pan became Emperor Qin, when Zhang Liang and his strongman attacked the wrong carriage with the iron hammer. He hurriedly tried to cover his mistake and said, “That is what will happen tomorrow. As long as the Crown Prince is hiding in another carriage, we can lure our enemies out without worry and annihilate them.”

* Note: Zhang Liang’s assassination attempt on Emperor Qin during one of his inspection tours. He found a very strong man and forged an extremely heavy hammer for the strongman. During the ambush, Zhang assumed that the most ornately decorated carriage in the middle is Emperor Qin’s carriage and the strongman hurled the hammer at the carriage, killing its occupant. However, it turned out that Emperor Qin was not the person in that carriage.

Teng and Jing both exclaimed the ingenuity of the plan. By then they are no longer in the mood to survey the areas along the route and after making some plans, they went to River Wei to meet up with Ji Yanran, who is in charge of masquerading as Black Dragon, before returning to the city together.

By the time they returned to the Wu Residence, it’s already dusk.

As soon as they stepped into the main door, Tao Fang informed that Wu Fu had just arrived and waiting for him in the East Hall.

Ji Yanran said in half-seriousness, “Someone is here to fish for news but don’t follow him to Drunken Breeze Loft. Don’t forget that you have not accompanied us for two nights. If you don’t get an early rest, let’s see where you’ll find the energy to deal with those assassins.”

Xiang Shaolong snickered, “Even if I have enough energy, I won’t waste it on those women. I already have the whole world. Other than my pretty wives, nothing else in this world will be able to tempt me.”

Ji Yanran smiled sweetly and let him go.

When he arrived at the East Hall, he saw that Wu Fu was behaving restlessly and secretly thought it amusing. He went up and said, “Master Wu really should not be here, what if it raises the suspicion of Lao Ai and Lu Buwei’s men?”

Wu Fu had already prepared his speech as he replied humbly, “Master Xiang, do not worry, I will be extremely careful.”

After they sat down, Wu Fu asked quietly, “What was the Crown Prince’s reaction after he found out about that matter?”

Xiang Shaolong was secretly amused as he replied calmly, “Of course he was furious, but because of the Empress Dowager, he can only be on his guard secretly until he finds evidence. By then he’ll be able to settle scores with Lao Ai and let’s see how the Empress Dowager can protect him then.”

He paused and added, “The Crown Prince admires your loyalty very much and was considering how he should reward you.”

Wu Fu was ecstatic, “As long as I can be of service to the Crown Prince and Master Xiang, I am satisfied. I’m not concerned about rewards.”

Xiang Shaolong said deliberately, “Otherwise we can create an official post for you to enjoy, but someone else will have to take care of your Drunkard Wind Loft because no official can ever open a brothel as a sideline. And it won’t look good either if made known. Anyway, you’ve earned more than enough!”

Wu Fu was thrilled as he replied with a wide grin, “That’s a minor problem. Master Pu had always wanted to buy over my Drunkard Wind Loft. If the sale is successful, I will give half of the proceeds to you. I know that such a trivial amount is nothing in Master Xiang’s eyes but it represents a little token on my part.”

Xiang Shaolong secretly thought that this gift is considered quite substantial.

He suddenly had a thought. This Wu Fu is actually trying to cover all bases so that no matter which side gains the upper hand, he can still enjoy advantages.

Once he had this understanding, he realized that this person can be made used of.

Especially when the Black Dragon is about to be born tomorrow, it will certainly shock the kingdom, and the rise of one group will mean the decline of the other. Once Xiao Pan’s reputation soars, people like Wu Fu who sees where the wind blows should know who they must side with.

Wu Fu furrowed his brow, “If Master Xiang is interested in that lady from my loft, just a word from you and I’ll send her over to serve you. Even if it’s Meimei, I’ll have a way.”

Xiang Shaolong was surprised, “You’re not afraid of Lu Buwei?”

Wu Fu sighed, “I’ve no choice even if I’m afraid. Meimei is now using her life to threaten me and she refuses to become Lu Buwei’s concubine. Of course, if I have Meimei’s beauty, I wouldn’t want to marry into Zhongfu Residence as well.”

Xiang Shaolong was very surprised. So Dan Meimei is with Lu Buwei because she fear his power and not because she’s willing. His hatred for her diminished immediately and a sense of pity rose up instead as he asked, “How is Lu Buwei handling this matter?”

Wu Fu laughed, “What can he do? He can only try to pressure and bribe me but poor me is threatened by Lao Ai as well. I’m sandwiched in the middle and have not had a good night’s sleep. Master Xiang, just take a look at me now and you’ll know.”

Xiang Shaolong took a close look at his face and indeed he looked haggard with dark circles under his eyes. He said with a smile, “If you knew this would happen, why do it in the first place? Lu Buwei has no feelings at all yet you helped him trick me. Aren’t you just looking for trouble?”

Wu Fu was stunned at first, then he paled as he stuttered, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Xiang Shaolong smiled, “Even Mo Ao couldn’t trick me, so how do you think you fare when compared to Mo Ao?”

Wu Fu threw himself to the ground and exclaimed in fear, “Master Xiang have misunderstood me, if I lie...”

Xiang Shaolong interrupted him, “Please don’t make any life or death vows, otherwise I may really decide to punish you in Heaven’s name just like what you wished for.”

Wu Fu cried out, “Please believe me, I really...”

‘Swish!’ The precious sword that has been through hundreds of battles left its sheath.

Wu Fu was so terrified he scrambled away, cold sweat as large as peas filled his forehead as his face turned deathly pale.

Xiang Shaolong placed the precious sword nonchalantly on the table next to him and said off handedly, “I won’t hide it from you. I have spies with Lu Buwei and Lao Ai, so I know everything. If you utter one more word of untruth, I will chop off your head with this sword and parade it at the market square. Of course the offense will be deceiving the ruler.”

Wu Fu was stunned for a moment before he replied dejectedly, “I concede!”