spoiled brat

Chapter 131, Section 130: The Sharp Arrow (Part 10)

A porcelain vase, narrow at the top and round at the bottom, wobbles like a roly-poly toy. The slanting sunlight by the window falls on the glaze, shimmering and flickering like a blooming flower.

After a brief pause, Xie Xiaoqing stirred things up again.

He leaned against the windowsill, staring blankly at the porcelain vase, lost in thought, not even noticing when his friend entered the room.

"You were playing with this bottle when I left, and you're still holding onto it now that I'm back." Pang Xuan sat down to change his shoes. He was a fat man, and his shoes were a size too big for most people. "Why are you treasuring something that someone else doesn't want?"

This is the bottle of ointment that Zhao Zhao threw away.

Xie Xiaoqing smiled bitterly. Everyone else thought he was lovesick, but only he knew what he was struggling with—how could a complete stranger know that his uncle was named Xie Cheng and so easily conclude that Xie Cheng was dead?
Why warn him to be careful? Does he think someone will kill him?
Xie Xiaoqing sighed, put the porcelain bottle into his sleeve, and looked up to see Pang Xuan with beads of sweat on his face: "You went to join the fun at the gate of the official school again?"

Pang Xuan chuckled and said, "We're going to easily outmaneuver those bastards today."

Since Zhao Zhao settled them in the inn, new poor students have been constantly moving in, crowding the front and back buildings.

After a brief discussion, it was discovered that everyone had been recruited into the official school by the Prince of Ning's mansion or Minister Jiang. Moreover, this included all the poor students staying at nearby inns.

Having similar backgrounds and reasons for coming together, they quickly became one of the group, calling themselves the Jiangning Party.

Where there's the Jiangning faction, there's naturally the Wu faction. They were all poor students, clustered together on Yangliu Bank, three streets away.

Because they lived close by, the two groups would bump into each other from time to time. Originally, they were all from poor families and there was no need for them to be at odds. But since they were from political parties, how could they not compete for supremacy?
The Jiangning faction denounced the other side as sycophants, but the Wu faction was not ashamed at all. They shook their newly made silk clothes, smoothed their shiny hair, and thought, "What's wrong with sycophancy?" Minister Jiang of the Ning Prince's Mansion only provided food and lodging, but the Second Young Master Wu actually paid them a lot of money.

Wu's faction was too shameless, and Jiangning's mockery was ineffective. Too lazy to continue cursing, they turned to expanding their influence and flocked outside the academy to recruit new people.

Seeing that things were not going well, Wu Dang quickly tried to imitate the cat.

At the entrance of the academy, two groups occupied the east and west sides respectively. Whenever a scholar who had passed the three examinations came to register, the two groups would shout and try to recruit him, each with a face as bright as a spring flower and enthusiasm as fiery. Whichever side the new scholar entered was considered the winner.

“It’s strange.” Xie Xiaoqing walked to the copper basin, washing his face as he said, “Everyone came here with the intention of saving the country and helping the people. Before even entering the official school or embarking on an official career, they have already learned a great deal about factional strife.”

Pang Xuan thought to himself, "Everyone's here to seize opportunities, but you're the only one who's so clueless. No wonder I can't get you to cooperate." He smiled and added, "But if that girl is at the academy tomorrow, would you like to join in the fun?"

"Really?" Xie Xiaoqing paused in his wiping motion.

Pang Xuan buried himself in packing his luggage, and only after Xie Xiaoqing anxiously asked him repeatedly did he say, "I was just kidding. That girl is the princess's confidante, how could someone of our status possibly know her whereabouts?"

Xie Xiaoqing was instantly deflated. He wanted to see Zhaozhao, but he was afraid he would have to wait until the official school started classes. But then he heard Pang Xuan say, "But we have to go now."

"Why?"

Pang Xuan pointed downstairs, where there was a clanging and banging sound, all of which could be heard as things were being moved and people were climbing the stairs.

Xie Xiaoqing peeked out the window and saw a dozen students carrying large bags hurrying against the flow of people toward the official school, as if afraid of being late.

"They went there to rob the house."

"...Robbery?"

“You stay in the inn every day and don’t know what’s going on outside. The dormitories behind the official school have been cleaned up and are specially for poor children coming to the capital.”

Pang Xuan slung his bundle over his shoulder and said, "Just now at the academy, the clerk reminded us to line up in front of the official school tonight. Tomorrow morning at dawn, they'll assign us our lodgings one by one. If we want a good room, we have to rush to be at the front of the line, right?"

Xie Xiaoqing suddenly realized what was going on, quickly packed his luggage, and hurriedly headed to the academy with Pang Xuan.

It was already dark when they arrived. The street in front of the university was packed with people, so crowded that even ants couldn't get through.

Xie Xiaoqing managed to steady himself in the crowd. Amid the cacophony of voices, he could vaguely hear shouts of cursing coming from ahead. The words were sharp and cutting, as if two groups of people were arguing loudly.

Needless to say, it was that childish political infighting again. Xie Xiaoqing chuckled to himself as Pang Xuan said in his ear, "Hey, this argument will probably go on until dawn."

The shouts grew louder and louder. Wu's students laughed at Jiangning's students for being poor and stingy, while Jiangning's students accused them of recognizing a thief as their father. They went back and forth, pushing and shoving each other, and it seemed like they were about to fight.

Seeing the situation turning against them, the soldiers watching from the platform shouted, "Enough with the talk! What are you kids fighting about? If you're so tough, don't fight your own people. Go register at the North City Recruitment Office and go and fight those barbarians!"

The students' arrogance subsided, and someone shouted, "Stop lecturing us, why don't you go and do it yourself?"

"Hey!" The soldiers jumped down from the platform and rushed into the crowd, grabbing one person and making them speak, determined to catch the one who had mocked them.

This disruption threw the already lined-up queue into chaos. Xie Xiaoqing was overjoyed and grabbed Pang Xuan, pulling him forward.

The two of them darted through the crowd with ease, like fish swimming among dense water plants.

After the commotion subsided and they lined up again, the two were already in the front rows, no more than thirty steps from the academy gate. They looked at each other and smiled, saying, "This place is good! Let's go in and grab a good room as soon as it's light!"

After a while, the students were so frightened by the soldiers that they dared not make any more noise or cause trouble.

As night deepened, everyone put down their luggage and sat down on the spot, leaning back to back and talking quietly.

Gradually, snoring began, one snoring sound after another, and drowsiness spread like ripples on water.

Pang Xuan, who was sitting next to Xie Xiaoqing, had already fallen asleep. Xie Xiaoqing was just about to drift off to sleep when his arm was gently patted.

He suddenly came to his senses and, through the darkness, saw that the person in front of him was a teenager with a very kind face. The teenager held up a finger to his lips, indicating that he should be quiet, and then gestured with his chin toward the street corner, as if he had something to say.

Xie Xiaoqing frowned. He didn't recognize the man and lowered his voice to ask about his background and identity. The young man whispered in his ear:

"Are you surnamed Xie? I had an uncle named Xie Cheng in my clan who served as a centurion in the capital garrison?"

Is it related to his own uncles and aunts?

Xie Xiaoqing's heart skipped a beat. Seeing him hesitate and not rise, the young man opened his palm and offered a wolf fang: "I used to work under Lord Xie. Last year, he retired and returned to his hometown, and I..."

A few humming sounds came from the side, disturbing the students who were fast asleep nearby.

Xie Xiaoqing stared at the wolf fang for a moment. Xie Cheng's belongings included many such items, and the person in front of him also had one, so he was probably Xie Cheng's confidant.

For the past two weeks, he couldn't understand the connection between his uncles and Zhao Zhao, and his doubts grew stronger. This young man's arrival was timely.

Seeing the boy point to the street corner again, Xie Xiaoqing quietly got up and tiptoed out with him.

Once outside the academy's main street, which was deserted, Xie Xiaoqing raised his voice and said, "You are my uncle's former subordinate, why are you looking for me here in the middle of the night?"

The young man bowed and sighed, "I heard you were going to the capital and have been searching for you for days without success. Tonight, I was desperate and squeezed my way from the back of the line, looking at hundreds of faces before finally finding you."

"Why?"

The young man looked around, hesitant to speak, and said, "This matter concerns Lord Xie's life. It's not appropriate to talk about it on the street. Please come to my home to discuss it."

As if afraid that Xie Xiaoqing would refuse, he added, "It's very close to Xuefuqian Street. It takes at most an hour to get there and back, so it won't delay your room assignment tomorrow morning."

Even without the second half of the sentence, Xie Xiaoqing would still go if Xie Cheng's cause of death were involved.

He followed the boy's steps, turning streets and alleys. The fewer the lights around him, the darker the night became, as if he were walking into a fog.

By the dim moonlight, Xie Xiaoqing could see that the boy's sleeves were very long, covering the back of his hands, but judging from the exposed rough knuckles, he was someone who was used to using knives.

“My uncle,” Xie Xiaoqing carefully chose his words, “did he offend someone before he died?”

The young man didn't answer directly, but sighed deeply, "Lord Xie's upright nature has caused him to offend countless people during his five years as an official in the capital. Others would be one thing, but he just happened to offend..."

"Wait a minute." Xie Xiaoqing slowed his pace and asked sharply, "What did you just say?"

The boy's back stiffened, and he slowly turned his head, the moonlight falling into his eyes with a hint of coldness: "I say, Lord Xie has offended someone he shouldn't have."

Xie Xiaoqing suddenly stopped and stopped following.

He was not close to Xie Cheng, but he knew that his uncles were worldly and shrewd, and had nothing to do with being upright... If the person in front of him was really Xie Cheng's confidant, why would he choose such a sarcastic word to describe his former master?
Subtly, Xie Xiaoqing took two steps back, his face full of wariness, and said, "There's no one here anymore. If you have something to say, why don't you say it here?"

The young man smiled warmly, "We're almost home. Why don't you come in and have a cup of tea?" Xie Xiaoqing felt increasingly uneasy. The young man continued to smile, "Could it be that the girl from the Prince Ning's mansion said something to you?"

As he spoke, he slowly approached. Xie Xiaoqing noticed something moving inside his long sleeves. Suddenly, a flash of cold light appeared—a dagger that shone brightly!

There is indeed a ghost!

Fortunately, Xie Xiaoqing was prepared and stepped back. The blade tore his clothes but did not injure his flesh.

He hurriedly fled, shouting for help as he ran. After running for a while, he realized that the route the boy had chosen was really clever. He had actually walked to the northwest of the city, where Buddhist temples were clustered together. There were no watchmen after dark, let alone soldiers on night patrol!
The boy pursued relentlessly, each dagger aimed straight for Xie Xiaoqing's heart.

Hearing the whistling of blades behind him and feeling the cold wind rushing in through his torn clothes, Xie Xiaoqing felt a chill run through him. He shouted towards the temple walls on either side:
"Amitabha! Bodhisattva, save me! Buddha, save me!"

The agonizing screams pierced the still night, yet no Buddha in any temple opened its eyes in pity.

Xie Xiaoqing ran as fast as he could, but gradually his strength gave out. Just as he was lamenting that he had reached the end of his road, he suddenly saw a light coming from the other side of the road. It turned out to be a group of people carrying lanterns and slowly returning home at night.

A way out!

"Help! Help!" Xie Xiaoqing shouted at the top of his lungs and ran towards the light with all his might.

Seeing that things were going badly, the boy who came to kill him hurriedly swung his knife, but the distance between them only grew further and further.

The boy regretted underestimating the bookworm's wariness. He thought he could kill him with one blow and hadn't brought any other weapons. In desperation, he had no choice but to throw his knife at the man.

Unexpectedly, just as the young man raised his arm to gather his strength, an arrow pierced through the wind, grazed Xie Xiaoqing's cheek, and stabbed straight into his palm!

With a thud, the dagger fell to the ground.

Despite the excruciating pain, the boy still wanted to pick up the knife and complete the mission. But when he looked down for a moment and saw the specially made arrowhead that had struck him, his face turned deathly pale, and he hurriedly ran away.

Faced with this sudden and drastic change, Xie Xiaoqing was still shaken and stared blankly at the group of people not far away.

There were no words on the lantern, so he couldn't guess whose family it was. He only knew that the person on the black horse at the front had shot an arrow to save him.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and was about to step forward to express his gratitude when the black horse came towards him.

The person on horseback looked down from above, his dark, glassy eyes reflecting his disheveled image.

It's Zhao Zhao again.

Xie Xiaoqing was speechless for a moment: "Miss..." He looked up and felt that he was incredibly small in front of Zhaozhao.

Zhao Zhao coldly withdrew her gaze, cracked the whip and gripped the reins, chasing after the blood on the ground. Soon, more guards followed, and the gusts of hooves made Xie Xiaoqing's face dry and his ears burning.

He stared blankly at her receding figure in the moonlight. She hadn't left a single word, yet her expression was exactly the same contemptuous disdain as it had been half a month ago.

"Young man," a guard stepped forward and asked, "are you a student of the official academy?"

Xie Xiaoqing nodded in agreement, and the guard pointed to the carriage road: "My princess invites you to come over."

Upon hearing this, Xie Xiaoqing realized that he had seen this carriage before. He knelt by the carriage window and bowed respectfully: "Thank you for saving me, Princess."

Inside the carriage, candlelight illuminated the gauze curtains, and slender hands moved deftly. A maidservant translated, "The princess asks, how did you get into trouble?"

Xie Xiaoqing was unaware of the reason and didn't know where to begin, so he gritted his teeth and said, "...The elders of the clan did not accumulate virtue and committed sins, which have fallen on me for no reason."

After a moment of silence inside the carriage, the accompanying maid asked again, "Do you know my Miss Zhaozhao?"

So her name is Zhao Zhao.

Xie Xiaoqing silently noted it down and answered truthfully, "This is the second time I have been rescued by her."

Behind him came the sound of horses' hooves. Xie Xiaoqing looked in the direction of the sound and saw that it was still Zhao Zhao's black horse leading the way. The difference was that she was holding a hemp rope in her hand, with the other end of the rope tied to the boy.

As they got closer, Xie Xiaoqing could see that the boy had several arrows stuck in his body, all in places that would hinder his movement but were not fatal, making him look like a hedgehog.

In the blink of an eye, the blood-soaked man was dragged to the front of the carriage by Zhao Zhao. Without even glancing at Xie Xiaoqing, she said to Xiu Ning through the window, "We've caught him."

A slight movement of a hand touched the gauze curtain, which the young man couldn't decipher. He cursed loudly, "You dog of the Prince Ning's mansion! I—"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Zhao stomped on his head with such force that he could barely catch his breath.

The boy landed face down, whimpering and struggling.

Zhao Zhao drew her sword, the thin blade lightly slicing across the back of his neck. The chill was piercing, and the boy, terrified of death, froze.

Zhao Zhao didn't intend to kill him now; she drew her sword to tear his clothes and see if he had any tattoos.

The blade moved swiftly, tearing open her clothes and revealing a spider tattoo on her back. Zhao Zhao's eyes trembled; she had seen the same design before, in Qingyang County, on the group of assassins who slaughtered Lou Zi.

It was someone Li Qingwen hired again.

"It's the Gate of Death."

The capital city was a place of wealth and power, but also rife with grudges. Some people paid to have their lives taken, while others accepted money to avoid trouble. The imperial court was powerless to control underground organizations, and the "Life-Taking Sect" (a group of powerful figures who sought to kill others) flourished despite repeated bans.

Inside the carriage, Xiu Ning pondered for a moment, then said, "Take this person back to the manor for a thorough interrogation. Send the frightened student back home. In the future, be sure to be careful, stay at the academy, and avoid going out."

Zhao Zhao answered yes, and tied up the half-dead boy tightly, handing him over to the other guards to take away.

Xiu Ning and his entourage returned to the Princess's residence first, while Zhao Zhao stayed behind, glancing sideways at the disheveled Xie Xiaoqing: "Let's go, I'll see you off." With that, she mounted her horse and rode off leisurely.

Xie Xiaoqing had to jog to keep up, but he had exhausted all his strength while fleeing for his life. He said breathlessly, "Slow down, I can't run anymore."

"There might be more assassins coming later. If we can't run, we'll just have to wait to die," Zhao Zhao said casually. "Anyway, you ignore what I say, so you don't seem like someone who wants to live."

Xie Xiaoqing loudly protested his innocence, first stating that he had stayed obediently in the inn for the first half of the month and had not gone out, then explaining the whole story of tonight, and even mentioning that the assassin had mentioned Zhaozhao.

I thought Zhao Zhao would be shocked, but she wasn't surprised at all.

Looking at her calm face, Xie Xiaoqing felt like he was looking at a fog, and couldn't help but ask, "You know everything, don't you? Why did my uncles die, and why was I targeted as soon as I entered the capital?"

"I know."

Zhao Zhao opened her hands, and the moonlight flowed through her fingers like water.

"But why should I tell you?"

Xie Xiaoqing was speechless for a moment, then grabbed her hem and said, "Something like this is impossible to prevent tonight. Who knows if I'll be able to escape with my life next time! I'm begging you... I'm begging you to let me die knowing why!"

Zhao Zhao gripped the reins, slowly leaning down from the horse, her shadow obscuring Xie Xiaoqing's upturned face: "Want to know?"

Her eyes were bright and beautiful, like a cat's, but they were empty and cold. Xie Xiaoqing nodded blankly: "...I want to."

"I really would like to grant your wish."

The moonlight lingered on Zhao Zhao's face, giving off a mocking expression.

"How could a piece of trash like you be worthy of knowing the inside story? You are too useless to be my ally. For me to waste time talking to you is just asking for trouble."

With each word she uttered, Xie Xiaoqing lowered his head further, unable to refute, wishing he could bury himself in the ground: "I..."

Zhao Zhao lightly tapped his head with her riding crop, saying playfully, "If you really want to know, prove yourself to me."

After saying that, he turned his horse around and stopped pushing it forward: "Take care of yourself. If something like this happens again, even if it's right next to you, I won't bother to help."

As the sound of hooves faded into the distance, Xie Xiaoqing stood in the empty street, staring blankly at Zhao Zhao's retreating figure.