Cultural Notes
Spoiler
Hu Qing/Liang Hongfei: Half-brother of Minister Liang, he is younger by quite a lot, and is only a few years older than his oldest niece. He beca Kayla's retainer after his relationship with Minister Liang began to deteriorate and has been thoroughly enjoying the free entertainnt that cos from his new position.
An Haoyang: Forr Imperial Investigator and retainer of Qu Boyong/Xiang Daozong. After a previous altercation with Hu Qing in which An Haoyang narrowly avoided death, he was forced to flee the capital and return undercover.
Qu Boyong/Xiang Daozong: Son of General Xiang and the Princess of Chu, he is currently seeking revenge against the Grand Duke for the extermination of the Xiang clan. He forrly worked undercover as a guard in the Zhao household and subsequently worked for Kayla. Like An Haoyang, he was forced to flee the capital and secretly return, posing as a holess man.
Liu Boyue: Xianchun's best friend, strategist, and right-hand man. Has been consistently going behind Xianchun's back and was recently exposed through Kayla's maneuvering.
Zhou Xianchun: Seventh Prince and one of the contenders for the seat of Crown Prince.
Chen Caichun: A talented young woman serving as the Chamberlain in the Court of Judicial Review, she is one of Kayla's retainers.
Sun Ruhui: Forrly serving as a county magistrate, he was recruited by Kayla to serve as a Chamberlain in the Court of Judicial Review before becoming the Left Secretariat of Justice. One of Kayla's retainers.
Shu Ling: One of the won working for Kayla under Hu Qing's command, she has unorthodox healing magic. (Unorthodox as in hey-wtf-are-you-doing-to-my-arm-is-that-even-legal, not as in unorthodox cultivation).
Wei Guang: Imperial Edict Bearer and Kayla's godfather, he served as a moderator for the previous generation of princes, sothing that gained him the Emperor's trust and the Empress Dowager's ire.
Minister Liang: Head of the Liang clan and Minister of Justice, one of Xianchun's supporters.
Tao Qian: One of Kayla's new bodyguards, recruited by Hu Qing.
Sun Zhong'e: One of the won working for Kayla through Hu Qing's command.
The next day just so coincided with Kayla’s day off, for better or for worse. If she had been in the office, her levels of anxiety would have warranted so serious concern from her subordinates, but in the safe house, Kayla was rendered immobile by the lack of information.
Wenyuan had also fallen silent again, refusing to speak no matter how sincerely Kayla expressed her gratitude, which only worsened her fizzling nerves.
“If he lives through the day, you must act. If he does not, you must take charge of the household by force.” Wei Guang’s advice continued to ring through her mind as she paced the questionably decorated rooms.
Going by Hu Qing’s estimate, the Grand Duke wouldn’t make a full recovery no matter what. The poison was rather uncommon and Kayla had taken the needle with her, any healer would be hard-pressed to figure out which toxins they were dealing with. By the ti they worked out the antidote, the Grand Duke would have taken so serious damage. But as for just how much damage, it was hard to say.
Please just let him die, Kayla silently pleaded to whichever god was listening.
Her prayers went unanswered. By late afternoon, Hu Qing returned with a grim expression.
“My lord, the Grand Duke is still alive,” Hu Qing said. “Two healers entered in the morning, but neither one of them have left yet. But the housekeeper isn’t doing anything and none of his allies or subordinates have been seen going in or out either.”
“What about communications?” Kayla asked.
“Nothing, none of our detectors picked up any communication devices being used, and while we tracked all the servants and guards who left the household, none of them went to deliver ssages,” Hu Qing replied.
“He’s not dead, but he’s not making any moves even after everything that happened last night…” Kayla muttered. “What does that an?”
“He’s probably indisposed right now,” Hu Qing replied. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up paralyzed in the arm or even half his body. But this is an opportunity we can’t let go of. Right now, the herd of dragons is without a leader, we should act before anyone else takes the initiative.”
“Is it possible to kill him?” Kayla asked.
Hu Qing shook his head. “If it was difficult before, it’s impossible now.”
Kayla nodded slowly.
“If you agree, I’ll destroy the evidence tonight,” Hu Qing pressed on.
Kayla mulled it over for a mont before caving in. She was out of options and out of ti, this was the only path left to her.
“Alright then,” Kayla said. “Do it.”
“Those two healers were the cream of the crop, their fees are insanely high,” An Haoyang reported to Qu Boyong in their temporary base of operations. “If the Grand Duke needs them, then his condition can’t be good. But what the hell happened?”
“We’ll find out in due ti,” Qu Boyong said. “But we need to act quickly, we can’t let that old bastard die before we take our revenge!”
“A man like that doesn’t deserve to die of natural causes,” An Haoyang said bitterly.
“Exactly. No matter what happens, let’s move tonight,” Qu Boyong said. “The Grand Duke is known to be a paranoid man, he probably has the evidence in his personal study. It’ll be difficult to figure out which is which since it’ll probably be disguised with magic. If the two of us are working together, it shouldn’t take too long to go through the study. The problem is the key to undoing the encryption magic, that’ll be more difficult to get ahold of. Worse cos to worst, we can hire a specialist to decrypt it for us–”
An Haoyang held out a hand to stop him. “Young lord, you shouldn’t go with . The guards of the Zhao clan already know your face and build. If anything goes wrong, you’ll be done for. I still have my plaque from the Bureau, so even if they catch , I can still use that to bluff my way out.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Qu Boyong argued.
“Even more reason why you shouldn’t go! They won’t hesitate to kill you should they catch sight of you, what can you do if you’re dead? I will be more than enough for this job, so please just leave it to !” An Haoyang urged him.
Qu Boyong fell silent for a long mont before finally nodding his head.
“Alright then, I’ll leave it to you.”
An Haoyang smiled confidently. “I won’t disappoint you, young lord!”
As evening fell in the Seventh Prince’s household, the servants tacitly stayed away from their master’s study.
Xianchun’s expression was severe as he watched Liu Boyue prepare. His rage had only intensified after hearing the full list of what Liu Boyue had been up to behind his back, especially since the strategist hadn’t even finished recounting everything yet.
Just how much have you been hiding from ? How could you play like a fool for this long?
Xianchun swallowed the questions for the umpteenth ti. Those could wait until after Liu Boyue had safely returned.
Liu Boyue finished tucking a shortsword into his belt and knelt, bowing his head almost to the ground.
“My prince, I’m eternally grateful for your rcy. Tonight, I’ll make up for my cris with rit, or die trying,” Liu Boyue bowed his head. Xianchun’s anger lted away at the thought of losing Liu Boyue for good.
“Your safety is most important,” Xianchun said gruffly.
Liu Boyue shook his head. “I’ve broken the trust you’ve placed in , this is the only way for to prove my sincerity. I swear to you that I will either bring you evidence of the Grand Duke’s cris or give the Bureau an opportunity to make a move. If I fail, please punish however you see fit.”
Xianchun gave him a stiff nod.
Liu Boyue bowed once more and left before Xianchun could find the right words. As the last of the light faded from the sky, Xianchun gave a silent prayer for Liu Boyue’s success.
Making his way past both the Zhao clan’s security and the Bureau’s surveillance was as easy as entering his own house for Hu Qing. Given his ample experience from popping in to talk with Wenyuan, Hu Qing knew the best routes in and out just like the back of his hand. Even with the tense environnt and covertly increased security after last night’s events, it was still an effortless endeavor.
The Grand Duke’s study had several high-end anti-theft spells that would activate an alarm if they were breached, layered on top of one another in complicated arrays. They looked intimidating but could be easily taken down with a bit of creativity. With a seasoned hand, Hu Qing deactivated them with a combination of household and brothel spells before entering the study through the window, silently closing it behind him.
He carefully activated a privacy talisman, sticking it onto the study door. The spell would make it difficult for anyone to see or hear what was going on inside the study until it was too late. Hu Qing didn’t really need too much ti to get the job done. The scrolls were paper, and the shelves were wood. A fire would make short work of both.
It was hardly his first ti destroying evidence, but Hu Qing couldn’t but help feel strangely uneasy. The job was much easier than several of the ones he’d taken before, and yet he still felt there was sothing off about the situation.
Let’s just get this over with. Zhao Wenyuan was probably still pacing around or wringing his hands while waiting for the results. As amusing as it was to watch, it wouldn’t do to make the paranoid Minister worry for too long.
Hu Qing poured so oil in a thin drizzle over the scrolls on the bottom shelf of a bookcase and lit a match. The scrolls caught fire and began to burn, and Hu Qing began to pour the trickle of oil onto the other bookcases.
To his shock, there was a soft, almost silent thump at the window.
What the fuck? Hu Qing set down the oil, pulling out his sword and ducking behind a bookcase. The window opened and a black-clothed figure entered silently, closing the window after himself.
“What the–” the man muttered under his breath as he saw the fire, hastily moving over to put it out. Hu Qing tensed at the familiar voice.
An Haoyang?! Hu Qing sprung out from his spot, stabbing at An Haoyang’s chest. The man let out a yelp, twisting aside to avoid the blow. The sword pierced through one of the shelves, slicing it in half. Scrolls tumbled to the ground as he pulled the sword out. An Haoyang had unsheathed his own blade and was now staring at Hu Qing in shock and fury.
“Bastard, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” An Haoyang demanded.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Fuck off–move aside or I’ll kill you!”
“Keep dreaming, you goddamn second-rate!”
Hu Qing stabbed at An Haoyang’s face again, the other man blocking it with a furious swing of his blade. They sprang at each other with a snarl, eager to tear their opponent apart. The two of them jolted to a sudden stop inches away from each other, glancing about tensely.
Soone’s coming.
Both of them fell silent, tensing as there was another soft thump outside the window. Hu Qing and An Haoyang gave each other a sharp glare, but their mirrored looks of confusion confird that the new arrival wasn’t related to either one of them. The window popped open and a third black-clothed figure climbed in. The man stopped still, halfway into the study with a leg still outside.
The third man looked at them in the sa shock and confusion that was reflected back at him.
An Haoyang’s was genuine, not recognizing the newest intruder at all. Hu Qing’s was mixed with disbelief.
Does the Seventh Prince have such a tight budget that he’s sending this guy?!
Liu Boyue recognized Hu Qing but had no idea who An Haoyang was. Even if he’d read about the forr Imperial Investigator in a report, Liu Boyue had never seen the man before, and certainly wouldn’t expect him to be in such a place.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Hu Qing snapped. “I got here first. According to the rules of the trade, it’s first co first serve! The fuck are you two doing?! Scram!”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Like hell!” An Haoyang snapped. Liu Boyue didn’t say anything, glancing between the two of them as he quietly unsheathed his sword, moving to enter.
“Stop it–don’t co in! Get out!” Hu Qing snarled at him. Liu Boyue ignored Hu Qing, landing on the floor with a soft thump.
“Back off,” Liu Boyue hissed. “I’ll kill whoever gets in my way!”
“You arrived last!” An Haoyang shot back. “If any of us should be made to leave, it would be you!”
“Soone who ran fifty steps is laughing at soone who ran a hundred steps now, isn’t he? You also need to fuck off,” Hu Qing snapped at An Haoyang.
“Don’t think that I won’t kill you both!” Liu Boyue threatened, tightening his grip on his sword.
The three of them faced off tensely, the fire beginning to curl up the corner of a shelf. Glancing at each other, An Haoyang and Liu Boyue couldn’t tell who the other man was, or whether they were on the sa side. Neither of them wanted to take the chance and attack first, not when they didn’t know if they would be tag-tead.
Hu Qing was the only one who knew that both were his enemies, and was doing his best to make that seem ambiguous. It was almost certain that Liu Boyue and An Haoyang were here to either steal evidence or to plant it.
Damn it, are you kidding ?! Hu Qing ground his teeth together in frustration. Fighting two-on-one wasn’t so much of an issue as being unable to kill both of them in the limited ti they had.
If they’re alive, they’ll talk. Fuck, why did both of them have to show up? I need to get rid of at least one of them. He glanced between Liu Boyue and An Haoyang.
An Haoyang it is, Hu Qing decided. It would leave a smaller ss for Wenyuan to clean up afterward.
Liu Boyue and An Haoyang concluded that they couldn’t trust each other, but neither of them was working with Hu Qing. Each of the three watched the other two, taking in even the most minuscule of movents.
The standoff continued for a few seconds longer, the air tight with tension. The flas visibly began to lap at a stack of scrolls, having spread upwards from the bottom shelves. All three of them sprang into action at once. An Haoyang moved to extinguish the fire, Hu Qing jumped in to attack him, and Liu Boyue proceeded to throw knives at both of them at once.
The fire was ignored as a flurry of attacks crowded the confined space of the study. Blades clashed against each other as they fought around and across the desk, hemd in by the burning shelves on each side. After exchanging a few attacks, they began to lose patience. Despite a few shallow cuts here and there, none of them were able to land any serious blows.
Hu Qing leaped across the desk to slash at An Haoyang. He yanked out a dagger just as An Haoyang blocked the sword and stabbed it into his left shoulder. Hu Qing yanked the blade back out, ignoring the yowl of pain it elicited from his opponent. Liu Boyue pulled out another blade as well, An Haoyang following suit with a little more difficulty. The fight ca to a sudden standstill, each of them carefully watching their opponents, ready to start swinging again at any mont.
An Haoyang and Liu Boyue made eye contact for a split-second and ca to a silent agreent. Before either of them could act on it and start ganging up on Hu Qing from both sides, he acted first. With a grunt, Hu Qing kicked the heavy mahogany desk straight off the ground and into Liu Boyue’s face. As the man stumbled under the weight, Hu Qing launched a furious barrage of attacks on An Haoyang, aiming at his wounded shoulder.
The speed and ferocity of Hu Qing’s movents had increased from before, and An Haoyang felt a sudden certainty that he would die. His sword was knocked out of his hand, flas glinting off the blade as it spun upwards in a graceful arc. An Haoyang blocked Hu Qing’s dagger, but couldn’t stop the sword from coming at his neck.
With a loud clang, Liu Boyue blocked Hu Qing from landing a killing blow, the two blades crossing an inch away from An Haoyang’s throat. The flas from the bookshelf spread onto the papers fallen from the desk, which now leaned against the bookshelves at a diagonal angle, further restricting their combat space to a small triangle.
Smoke was beginning to fill the room, and the light of fire could no longer be contained by the privacy talisman on the door. With an angry snarl, Liu Boyue unleashed his pent-up frustration onto Hu Qing, relentlessly swinging his dual-wielding swords in an almost feral manner.
Hu Qing jumped backward onto the fallen desk, flinging An Haoyang into a bookcase and kicking Liu Boyue in into another. Scrolls fell from their shelves and crashed upon them, scattering across the floor and rolling into the flas. Hu Qing flung his dagger at Liu Boyue’s thigh, aiming at his artery. Liu Boyue barely dodged it as Hu Qing lunged forward, grabbing An Haoyang’s discarded sword from where it was lying on the floor. With a backhanded swing, he smashed through An Haoyang’s sneak attack and cut a deep gash into the man’s face. An Haoyang let out a pained howl, stumbling back as he was blinded by the blood in his eyes.
Hu Qing knocked Liu Boyue’s attacks aside again, launching himself onto the other side of the desk and continuing to focus on the disoriented An Haoyang. Even with Liu Boyue’s relentless blows, Hu Qing was able to fend off the attacks while crushing through An Haoyang’s weakened defenses.
Cornered and desperate, An Haoyang’s movents took on a frenzied edge, like the final burst of strength from a wounded animal. His teeth were bared, and there was a wild look in his eyes. Hu Qing dodged as Liu Boyue stabbed at him from behind, not missing the chance to slash at An Haoyang’s calf. He lashed out with a kick, knocking Liu Boyue off balance.
“Fire! There’s a fire in the study!” A young woman’s voice rang out in a terrified shriek from the corridor. All three of them froze. They glanced at each other for a second before swiftly fleeing from the window like arrows shot from a bow. None of them bothered exchanging any blows on their way out, each going in their own escape routes before the Imperial Investigators could mobilize to start tracking them.
Not a single one of them had succeeded. For Hu Qing, the fire would be put out, and even counting smoke damage, it wasn’t enough to destroy all the evidence. His opponents were even worse off, not having even managed to grab a single scroll throughout the whole process.
Resentnt and frustration boiling in their hearts, the three of them each went their own way.
As Hu Qing expected, he found Kayla anxiously pacing the room.
“Hu Qing, you’re back! How did it go?” Kayla asked. As Hu Qing stepped closer into the dimly lit room, Kayla caught sight of his wounds and paled.
“What the fuck happened?! Are you alright?!” Kayla pulled out her stack of talismans, pulling out the ones for healing.
“I failed,” Hu Qing said quietly. Kayla’s movents stopped.
“What?”
Hu Qing knelt on one knee, lowering his head. “I failed,” he repeated. “I’m sorry.”
Kayla gulped, forcibly quashing down the panic rising in her chest with little success.
“If soone as skilled as you fails, then that ans it was impossible to succeed in the first place,” Kayla comforted him, unable to completely keep her voice from quavering. “Co on now, fix up your wounds and tell what happened.”
Hu Qing got up and moved to the couch, accepting the talismans that Kayla shoved at him. He recounted the three-way battle and the discovery of the fire as he cleaned up his wounds, shaking his head in frustration.
“The wood was ridiculously good quality and burned slower than cheaper shelves would’ve. If I’d gotten enough ti, I would’ve made sure all the scrolls were destroyed,” Hu Qing sighed. “But now, the situation’s only gotten more complicated.”
“Are you sure it was An Haoyang and Liu Boyue?” Kayla asked.
Hu Qing nodded.
“Liu Boyue was there?!” Kayla said in disbelief. “The man himself? Why?!”
“Maybe he’s trying to regain the prince’s favor by taking on a dangerous mission,” Hu Qing offered. “I didn’t injure him. There wasn’t enough ti to kill him, and you can’t let him go back with injuries, or the prince will have an excuse to act against you. An Haoyang though, I got him pretty good, but he’ll probably manage to heal up in a few days. Sneaky bastard just doesn’t stay still, or I’d have hacked him into pieces already.”
“Shit! Is Liu Boyue acting with or without Xianchun’s permission?! Fuck!” Kayla shot to her feet and began to pace the room. “No, no matter which it is, he’ll definitely tell Xianchun now that he can confirm your presence. Or would he? He should already be on thin ice so maybe–But what about An Haoyang? We need to make sure he can’t make contact with Liu Boyue, or those two will team up! Damn it! And the Grand Duke–”
Kayla stopped herself and took a deep breath, sorting through her thoughts before speaking again. There had only been so many options to begin with, what was the point of lanting in hindsight?
Not to ntion, if Hu Qing hadn’t gone tonight, we really would’ve been done for.
“You made the right decision, Hu Qing. If Liu Boyue had gotten hurt or killed, we would really be screwed. As for An Haoyang, if he’s injured, then that puts Qu Boyong at a significant disadvantage. It also makes negotiations a bit more difficult, but I didn’t have much hope for that to begin with. You’ve done well,” Kayla said.
“I failed,” Hu Qing said flatly.
“You wouldn’t have failed if those two assholes didn’t barge in. Who the fuck do they think they are, breaking into soone’s study like that?” Kayla said, deliberately ignoring the fact that she had also sent Hu Qing to break into soone’s study.
“In any case, we tried, it didn’t work, and now we need a new plan. I’ll call Chen Caichun and Sun Ruhui, I need to speak with them,” Kayla said. “Do you need Shu Ling to take a look at your wounds?”
Hu Qing shook his head. “I’m fine. I just need to know what I should do to clean up this ss.”
Kayla passed him a cup of water. “Drink so water first.”
She moved the lamp closer to Hu Qing as he dealt with his wounds before activating the communication device. It connected imdiately. Sun Ruhui and Chen Caichun had been holding their breaths since the events of last night and were more than eager to hear Kayla’s updates.
“The fact that Liu Boyue and An Haoyang were both there proves that we narrowly avoided the worst-case scenario,” Chen Caichun said after Kayla finished explaining the situation. “But this only creates more issues for us. Not only will the Zhao household be much more likely to escalate the conflict, but the palace will also try to take this opportunity and get involved. The Seventh Prince as well…regardless of whether or not Liu Boyue was sent by him or acting alone, there’s no way Liu Boyue wouldn’t report this to him.”
“He would report it even if he was acting on his own?” Kayla asked in alarm. That severely undercut her already-marginal chances of avoiding a confrontation with Xianchun.
“Of course,” Chen Caichun replied. “You’re one of the greatest threats to the mbers of the Seventh Prince’s faction, even if you’re not a big threat to their master. The very existence of the neutral faction restricts the ability of the victor to divide the spoils. It reduces the number of positions they’ll be able to grab and the amount of benefits they’ll be able to gain. They say that blocking soone’s path to fortune is just as bad as killing their parents, the factions of both princes all see us as a nail in the eye, as a barb in the flesh. There’s a limit to what they’d do against us under normal circumstances since they have their own positions to consider, but this is too great a chance for them to pass up on.”
Kayla withheld a groan, rubbing a hand over her face.
“Any ideas?” Kayla asked.
Even if Xianchun hadn’t morphed into a revenge machine yet, becoming his enemy was the last thing she needed. If he combined forces with the palace to launch a full-out search-and-destroy operation against the Grand Duke’s faction, he would probably still manage to uncover enough evidence to seal the Zhao clan’s fate. Kayla doubted that she would be spared either, not if Xianchun was thirsty for blood.
After an uncomfortably long silence, Sun Ruhui spoke.
“Since this can’t be hidden, then it should be justified. My lord, why not be proactive in reporting this to the palace and to the Seventh Prince?” Sun Ruhui asked. “If you allow them to control the narrative, they may pin whatever motives suit them best upon you and thus shackle you with nonexistent cris. We can’t sit back and wait to be killed. Rather, we should be the ones to take charge.”
“Proactively report…but with what excuse? I can’t exactly tell the palace that I tried to kill the Grand Duke and that he tried to kill , the Empress Dowager will sink her teeth into that and tear us into shreds,” Kayla said.
“How about having your godfather deal with the palace? The Emperor listens to everything he says, and if the Empress Dowager disagrees, the Emperor will mark it off as due to her dislike of Wei Guang. And no matter how powerful she is, she can’t act against her son.” Sun Ruhui suggested. “As for the Seventh Prince, there are a number of plausible excuses, but you know him better than we do. What do you think will work best?”
Kayla mulled it over for a mont.
“Let’s do it like this. I’ll send a ssage to the Seventh Prince and say that the Grand Duke told he was planning to blackmail mbers of the court into compliance. As a result, I tried to send Hu Qing to destroy the Grand Duke’s evidence, but he was stopped by two n that we believe were hired by the Grand Duke. I’ll tell the Seventh Prince that the Grand Duke ntioned Minister Liang among the nas he could threaten, and fra it as a warning for him,” Kayla said. “Could that work?”
“I think it’s a viable option,” Chen Caichun said. “It is the Grand Duke, after all. Blackmailing officials is sothing he’s notorious for. But hasn’t Hu Qing t Liu Boyue before?”
Kayla stifled a groan.
“It was night and he couldn’t see properly?” Kayla offered weakly.
“The room was on fire,” Chen Caichun pointed out. Kayla glanced at Hu Qing, who shrugged.
“It’s not as though there aren’t other n in the trade with similar builds,” he replied. “But worse cos to worst, I can just claim that I thought he looked like Liu Boyue but didn’t believe that he could possibly be in such a place, or that he would try to stop us from doing such a thing.”
Ah, yes, the good old disbelief card–I thought it might be you, but how could you possibly do such an underhanded thing, especially when it undercuts your own goals? Xianchun won’t be able to press the matter without looking like a fool.
She nodded approvingly. “Shall we go with that?”
“It may not be the strongest excuse, but it’ll do,” Sun Ruhui replied. “But my lord, the Seventh Prince would find it all the more believable if there is a selfish motive for your actions. An act of blackmailing alone isn’t enough to justify such extre action.”
“Then I’ll say the Grand Duke was trying to get removed from my post and exiled from the capital, and that he was planning to use my father’s adoption to delegitimize ,” Kayla said.
“That should suffice. If we plan on acting, the scene needs to be complete. You should send a warning to the Third Prince as well,” Sun Ruhui added. Kayla nodded.
“No matter what, this excuse can only buy us so much ti. We need to quickly figure out a way to get rid of the Grand Duke and destroy all the evidence before people start to notice the cracks. Is there any news about his health?” Chen Caichun asked.
Kayla shook her head. “The poison probably won’t be enough to kill him, not unless I’m really lucky. But it should at least put him out of commission for a few more days. I’ll consult my godfather as well, so in the anti, please keep thinking of a plan and let know if anything cos to mind. Hu Qing, make sure we keep a close eye on Qu Boyong and An Haoyang, they can’t be allowed to make contact with anyone that has even the slightest bit of connection to Xianchun.”
She thanked them and turned off the device. Letting out a deep sigh, Kayla dropped her head onto the desk.
“Alright, I’m going to head over to the Wei household first, I need to talk this over with him in person,” Kayla said. “Hu Qing, you should stay here and rest up properly, I’ll leave arranging personnel to you. I’ll take Tao Qian and Sun Zhong’e with , and we’ll et back here.”
Hu Qing frowned slightly.
“I’m fine,” he said. “You shouldn’t be wandering with only two guards at a ti like this. I’ll go with you, I can deal with everything through the communication device.”
“Alright then, let’s get going,” Kayla agreed. “It’s ti to drag in my godfather.”
Whether it was dealing with the palace or planning their next steps, Wei Guang was their best way out of this ss.
Cultural Notes
群龙无首/The [herd of] dragons [are] without a head: An Ancient Chinese proverb referring to a situation where many capable people are without a leader to bring them in line, whether to keep them in control or to unite them for a greater goal.
将功赎罪/Make up for cris with rit: An Ancient Chinese proverb referring to the practice of allowing soone who has committed a cri to make up for it/redeem themselves through an achievent (ex: allowing death penalty criminals to serve as the infantry vanguard in a battle, allowing an official who failed to complete the Emperor's orders to make up for it through another task, etc).
五十步笑百步/Laugh at a [man who has run a] hundred steps after running fifty steps: An pre-Qin Ancient Chinese proverb originating from a quote by ncius in which he criticizes the ruler of a kingdom for looking down on other kings' incompetence by asking "if a man flees the battlefield like a coward, does it make a difference whether he runs a hundred steps or fifty steps?" Not knowing where this was going, the king replied that it did not make a difference. ncius then criticized the king for laughing at a man who ran a hundred steps when he has run fifty steps himself, implying that the king was not much more competent than the worst of his peers.
断人财路如同杀人父母/Blocking a man's path to fortune is the sa as killing his parents: An Ancient Chinese idiom referring to the hatred that you incur after blocking a man's path to fortune and wealth. It builds off of the saying that 弑父母者不可与同代天/You cannot live under the sa sky as one who has killed your parents.
占取先机/Gain the first opportunity: An Ancient Chinese proverb aning to gain the upper hand by acting first.
坐以待毙/Sit and wait to be killed: An Ancient Chinese proverb aning to do nothing to save yourself.
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