Chapter 45: Ready to Action
Why would a feudal dynasty in a world of cultivating immortals control martial arts secrets so strictly?
Ruan Xing had never thought of this, so when she saw the man's slightly smug smile, she knew that her original plan was no longer effective.
So, taking advantage of the time she spent in silence, she started a simulation in her mind.
When Sun Erlang saw that Ruan Xing didn't answer, he knew that he had successfully grasped her vital point with his words, and said with a smile: "Boss Ruan, you handed the handle to me yourself. Now I have to believe that Boss Ruan is really here to help me sincerely. Don't worry, I will keep it a secret for you."
Ruan Xing was not in a hurry and continued to follow the other party and said, "Since Erlang, you have received my sincerity, what about your sincerity, Erlang? Just keeping it secret is not enough."
"Boss Ruan is quite greedy. The only two places in the world that have Luoqi Pills are the palace treasury and the Imperial Master's Palace, neither of which is easy to get to. Anyway, this case is extremely important to me. If Boss Ruan spares no effort to help me, I have a way to let Boss Ruan enter the Imperial Master's Palace. However, this method needs to be kept secret for the time being."
He knocked on the table and spoke mysteriously and quietly.
Ruan Xing said with a half-understanding and half-embarrassment: "Of course, but, Erlang, can you give me a guarantee? Otherwise, I have no idea if I will follow you with my entire gang and risk their lives."
Guarantee? Sun Erlang thought for a moment and asked, "Give you a letter with a written receipt?"
"Yes!" Ruan Xing responded with a smile and waved to the servant beside the carriage to come over and hand over the brush and paper.
Sun Erlang wrote down a paragraph of text that was enough to prove that it was a personal secret order, but he did not clearly write down the names of the Red Head Gang and Ruan Xing. Ruan Xing pretended not to see his hidden intentions, but urged anxiously, "And your private seal."
"Of course I won't forget it." Sun Erlang took off the silver hairpin on his head, twisted the tail to split it into two halves, and inserted one half into the ring on his thumb, fitting them together perfectly, rubbed it with ink, and stamped it on the secret order.
He put away the silver hairpin and said cheerfully, "In this case, Gang Leader Ruan can rest assured, right?"
"Don't worry, don't worry. We in the Red Head Gang will listen to your orders. In order to keep your identity confidential, I can't hold a banquet for you. Now I can only serve tea instead of wine. Let me toast you a glass!" Ruan Xing called the shopkeeper to bring two more bowls of new tea.
Ruan Xing just picked it up to drink, but Sun Erlang picked up the half cup he had drunk before and said, "I'll just drink this bowl."
"It's better to be careful when you go out." Ruan Xing didn't care about Sun Erlang's defensiveness. The two drank the tea in the bowl and smiled at each other.
After saying goodbye, Ruan Xing put the secret order in his arms and put it close to his body, then turned around and got on the carriage.
After closing the door, he put away the smile on his face and said in a low voice with an indifferent expression: "Ask Hong Xi, Lu Youqi, and Wang Dongxing to meet me at the headquarters in an hour. Now, let's go to the Qianshi Mansion."
The gang members who were accompanying her followed the order and left. The groom seemed to have heard that she was in a bad mood, and urged the horse forward without even breathing.
Ruan Xing sat in the car with his eyes closed, his mind filled with the results of the simulation.
[Simulating]
At the age of six, you reached a cooperative relationship with the new city lord Sun Erlang as the leader of the Red Head Gang. In order to gain your trust, Sun Erlang wrote a letter to you.
Afterwards, you led the Red Head Gang to wait for Sun Erlang's instructions. Three days after he secretly investigated the case and collected evidence, he sent you to lead the Red Head Gang to attack seven locations including the weaving workshop and the silk shop at night, and captured three criminals who failed to escape, and the remaining 27 people who were less involved, and 319 people who were unaware of the situation. While Sun Erlang was interrogating them on the spot, he ordered you to take a few people to pretend to be criminals and escape to the Household Tax Bureau. You broke in with the help of both inside and outside forces, but encountered strong resistance. The Red Head Gang suffered heavy casualties, and finally did not let any relevant personnel escape. Sun Erlang commended you very much, promised to recommend credit for you and guarantee that you could enter the National Master's Palace to get the Luoqi Pill.
The next month, Sun Erlang escorted all the criminals back to the capital for trial. Ten days later, you were assassinated by several masters and died.
[End of simulation]
After choosing the memory, Ruan Xing felt a little heavy-hearted. When she was dying, those masters searched her body and took the handwritten letter away. Perhaps because there was no need to be afraid of the dead, she also heard the conversation between several people. The content of their conversation was not important, but the voices were extremely feminine, allowing Ruan Xing to judge without thinking that they were several eunuchs.
No matter how nice Sun Erlang's words were, he was lying to her. Once he returned to the capital, he would reveal to the palace that she had a method of cultivating martial arts after birth.
She couldn't let him return to the capital alive.
So when Sun Erlang was writing the secret order, she used her nimble fingers gained from learning the art of gambling to secretly poison the cup of tea. In order to ensure that he would drink the tea, she deliberately asked for two cups of new tea to serve him.
Sure enough, out of caution towards her, Sun Erlang did not drink the new tea she asked for, but drank the old tea instead.
The poison she used was the same one that she had asked Hu San to put in Ruan's father's medicine before, so he looked fine now, but when he became emotionally excited, he would suddenly collapse and die.
She leaned against the wall of the car, closed her eyes, and said silently to herself: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you. Thank you for letting me know very important news."
The car quickly drove to the Qianshi Mansion. As soon as Ruan Xing got off the car, he was recognized by the servants of the Qianshi Mansion and hurried to report.
Ruan Xing didn't have to wait too long. Young Master Liu came over in a hurry, frowning, "What happened? Why did you come to see me without notifying me in advance?"
"Is the deputy awake? I want to see him." Ruan Xing said directly.
Looking at Ruan Xing's expression, Master Liu knew that if it wasn't an emergency, he wouldn't have come here in such a hurry. He swallowed what he was about to say and said, "He's awake and taking medicine. I'll take you there."
Inside the room, the assistant official's face was as pale as gold paper. He leaned weakly on Aunt Liu's shoulder and drank the tonic medicine spoon by spoon with difficulty.
Seeing Master Liu and Ruan Xing coming in, he glanced at Aunt Liu, who immediately understood, put away the medicine bowl, put a few soft pillows behind the clerk to help him lean back, and then left.
He looked at Ruan Xing with a gentle expression, "Boss Ruan...right? I heard Shouye talking about you."
His voice was hoarse and he seemed to have difficulty breathing. Ruan Xing found it hard to persuade him to die in such a miserable state.
After a long silence, Ruan Xing asked, "Is the clerk all right? Can you still move?"
"If I force myself to stand up, I can naturally walk a few steps, ahem..." The assistant officer made a joke, and couldn't help coughing violently for a while before continuing, "I haven't thanked Gang Leader Ruan for saving my life yet. Gang Leader Ruan came to see me, and I don't think he wanted to see me stand up and walk a few steps..."
Young Master Liu showed distress on his face, and couldn't help but sit down beside the bed and gently pat his chest to calm him down. Ruan Xing didn't waste any words, and directly took out Sun Erlang's handwritten secret order and put it in front of the deputy officer for him to see.
He opened his eyes wide and read word by word, "This..."
After a long pause, he took another deep breath, "What does Gang Leader Ruan want to do with my broken body?"
"This is a secret order from the new city lord. Naturally, he hopes that you can help capture the wanted criminal." Ruan Xing said calmly, "So I ask you, do you dare?"
The assistant minister thought for a moment and said softly, "I dare."
Young Master Liu said quickly: "But your body..."
The assistant stopped him with his eyes, "Of course I know my body...but Boss Ruan, I'm afraid that if I get up, I won't be able to hold on until the end..."
"I have a secret medicine here that can help you overdraw your energy." Ruan Xing took out a medicine bottle, "If you feel like you can't hold on any longer, you can take one pill."
"Well... what, time?"
"Tonight." Ruan Xing turned away, unable to bear to watch any longer. The two qualities of kindness and cold-bloodedness were contradictory and intertwined in her. She could release the soul in the pennant for free and without asking for anything in return to save the lives of the assistant and those guards, but when she was in danger, she would not hesitate to drag innocent people in to die.
No matter who it is, it is not as important as your own life.
"I will send someone to inform you of the plan in detail before tonight. Now... you can spend some time with your family."
After saying this, Ruan Xing strode away, hoping to leave enough time for the assistant to spend with his family.
Young Master Liu said nothing, but his burning tears dripped onto the back of his hand that was placed on the chest of the deputy officer. The deputy officer stretched out his hand with great effort and placed it on Young Master Liu's hand, sighing, "You have all grown up and become commanders now, you are not allowed to cry anymore..."
Young Master Liu choked up and said, "I haven't grown up yet. If you leave, what will happen to my sister and Ah Cheng? I don't have your ability. I can't protect them..."
The assistant official smiled helplessly, "Even if I don't agree, I won't be alive for many days, right? Oh, don't hide it from me. You grew up beside me, how can I not see through you?"
"You lost your parents when you were just born, and it was very difficult for your sister to support the family alone. An unmarried woman who was guarding such a large family business was bound to be bullied. She came to me and said that she wanted to be my concubine. I said it was unfair for her, a lady from a wealthy family, to be my concubine, but she said it didn't matter as long as the family business didn't fall into the hands of others. She asked me to protect you and the foundation of the Liu family. I agreed, so I named you Liu Shouye. In a blink of an eye, sixteen years have passed..."
His eyes were gentle and affectionate, lost in memories.
"Shouye, ahem... you have to protect more than just the Liu family's foundation now. This is an opportunity. Although Gang Leader Ruan pushed me to death, he also gave me a chance to make merit. As long as I have this merit and seek mercy from His Majesty, Shouye, you will have a smooth career from now on... I have cleared the way for you, you have to walk carefully, do you understand?"
"...Yes, brother-in-law." Liu Shouye agreed with tears in his eyes and a trembling voice.
"Okay..." The assistant smiled with relief, "Go, call your sister and Ah Cheng over. I want to see them more."
……
An hour later, in the meeting room of the Red Head Gang headquarters.
"Everyone is here." Ruan Xing sat in the main seat and glanced at the people below. The overly serious atmosphere made Wang Dongxing put away his usual playful smile and look a little solemn.
"Wang Dongxing." Ruan Xing first pointed out his name. "Your identity is quite special. Since I didn't ask your mother to come here, I won't ask you to do anything unpleasant. Here is the portrait for you. Have a group of new faces come to your subordinates. Let them do it. Don't get into physical conflict with them or hurt them, but make them angry. Watch him and don't let other unidentified people get close. Your role is very critical. This must be completed before dusk. His position is being watched by the butler. Go ask him."
Ruan Xing handed the portrait made by the old man who was good at drawing wanted posters to Wang Dongxing, who took the portrait with both hands, leaned forward and said, "I obey your command!"
"Lu Youqi." Ruan Xing named another person, looking at this first person she met in the Red Head Gang. His gang members practicing martial arts were recognized by all the Red Head Gang managers as the most numerous and the strongest. Even some of the thugs in other managers' gangs came from his gang. "Gather all the brothers you can mobilize before dusk and wait for my order. Be low-key and concealed. Do you understand?"
Lu Youqi bowed solemnly and said, "I obey your orders."
"Hong Xi." Ruan Xing moved his lips, paused for a few seconds, and finally said: "How is the matter of the Luoqi Pill going?"
"I am ashamed that I still haven't found any information about it..."
"No need to look for them." Ruan Xing interrupted him, "Gather all the gang members who have been involved in this matter. Tonight, you lead them as the vanguard."
Hong Xi lowered his head, and his expression could not be seen. Only a low voice could be heard, "Your subordinate... obeys your orders."
After everything is arranged, all that remains is to wait.
There are still two hours until dark.
The scorching afternoon heat made people irritable and even the iced fruits brought by the maid could not relieve the heat. Ruan Xing took a bite of the melon cut into small pieces, waved away the maid and planned to simulate the results of a battle.
Soon after a few seconds, the first simulation ended, and Ruan Xing began to check her memory to fill in the gaps. The list of wanted criminals and evidence she had were all compiled by Sun Erlang. She only knew one side of the story, and there would be many loopholes when it was actually implemented. Fortunately, with the simulator, she could find those loopholes over and over again and fill them in until the operation was perfect.
However, in different simulations, sometimes the gang members she sent out to investigate the Luoqi Dan would betray her, and she would be assassinated by several old eunuchs a few days later. Unless she killed all those people in this operation in the name of vanguard troops, she could avoid this branch line.
She didn't know what variable influenced it, but she didn't want to face this variable, so she could only nip it in the bud.
Tiredly lying on the beauty couch, Ruan Xing pressed her temples and thought to herself, I am so tired... When can I touch the threshold of cultivating immortals? After this matter is over, she will go to the capital. There are still more than ten years before the plot. She should not be affected by the luck of the male and female protagonists if she goes to the capital now. She set two small goals for herself. One is to find out the sect that took the male protagonist away more than ten years later, and the other is to sneak into the National Master Palace to get the Luoqi Pill.
With the previous experience of Sun Erlang as a lesson, she must be more careful this time.
Wow, I listened to the comments and took over my sister ahead of time, but a big bug appeared and I scratched my head all night but couldn't solve it. I was devastated...
(End of this chapter)
